Shikabane Hime: Yori
by Kirbilius Clausius
Summary: Yori only had one regret, that she had not served the Ultimate Monkey Master as he deserved. What lengths will she have to go to in order to pay her penance.
1. 0 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Yori lie in the wooden tub.

It was sweltering in the bath house. Yori had wandered into it hours ago, after missing every single routine duty Yamanouchi expected of her. By the time the sheer listlessness of her empty existence had formed into a plan, the girl had started upon it.

Yori had chopped wood for herself: it would be wrong to take chopped wood from the others and she believed HE would not approve. She had filled the tub by hand: HE was quite the hard worker. She had lit the fire under the tub soley by grinding the splinters of her chopping: HE was quite innovative when HE chose to be. The girl had allowed herself to revel in the feeling of the water warming up: HE had a child like wonder about the world.

The boiling water brought her out of her reverie. Through the thick steam in the bath house she could see the water rolling in the tub. She could make out the straight cuts across her wrists, let alone the brownish-red patches where 3 liters of her blood had boiled off the floor an hour ago. Yori knew in her heart that she was dead: she hadn't felt it pump for some time now.

In reverent Japanese, Yori murmered aloud. "I would have thought that jigoku would have flames instead of steam."

Because she knew she was in hell. She killed herself and went to hell. It was the only penance Yori knew. The Ultimate Monkey Master, Master Stoppable Ron-san, ascended not due to her love or her companionship or her dutiful tending. He had ascended because of a woman who would never love to _serve_ him. A gaijin ingrate that would never revere the opportunity afforded her by Master Stoppable.

Yori's only regret was not being able to serve Ron-san well enough.

Master Sensei had informed her that he sensed and evil coming that would require the Ultimate Monkey Master to protect every primate on the planet. Yori nearly had a heart attack from worry-was Ron-san up to the challenge? When Master Sensei assured her that he was, Yori fell to her knees in relief. When he told her that Master Stoppable would ascend because of the love of another woman, her heart did break.

The young ninja wandered the grounds in a haze. She didn't hear any of the reports of alien invasion. She didn't care how many graduates of her school had fallen in Japan fighting the machines before the world was saved. And when she heard the howl, because how could one attuned to such things not hear the howl of every ancestor of every human agreeing to serve a single man, she realized. The need for penance. The need to die.

If only she could have served him better. More. Something.

And Master Sensei stood in the door of the bath house. The students behind him ducked away from the super heated steam and he, alone, withstood the scalding vapors. Yori supposed that she was lucky.

Master Sensei would help send her to hell, right?

2

"Master Mibu", Yori could hear Master Sensei state fairly sternly. "I brought what remains of my student to your attention because of your expertise. Not your judgement. Remember well-I did not have to."

Yori attempted to remember how she got to where she was but everything seemed...dampenned, like a wet blanket was thrown over the whole world. Where was she anyway? She tried to look around but everything seemed blurred, strobed, stigmaed...any possible flaw of sight. She tried to sit up, but she didn't seem to be able to break the wet pieces of paper wrapped around her. That's right, she had been bathing so she should be wet and naked. Why were these prayer strips wrapped around her body then?

"Master Sensei.", the girl heard another man reply. "I respectfully assure you or our deepest gratitude that you trusted us enough allow us to aid. However! It is no longer your student. It is Shikabane. It needs to be destroyed."

Apparently Master Sensei disagreed. "Respected Brother Mibu. I know certain truths. I have taught _many_ students in the art of...appropriating certain truths. One of these is that the Kougon sect has been not destroying Shikabane for centuries. All of these Shikabane are young-like Yori. They are female-like Yori."

"How could one such as you know these things?", Mibu...not quite countered. His tone was akin to drawing a pet from his hiding place.

Master Sensei scoffed. "Contrary to popular belief, the art of dispensing of oppressors by any means neccessary is the oldest profession. How could one who attempts to instruct in that path's ways not be intimately familiar with all the consequences of tragic deaths and deep rooted regrets?"

"I see.", Mibu stated.

Master Sensei continued. "I also have someone in mind for you to bind with Yori."

The other man disagreed. "We have more than enough qualified monks trained specifically for this type of arrangement."

Master Sensei informed, "But the person I have in mind provides a unique opportunity."

3

"Wade!", Kim Possible nearly hissed. "I want to know where my boyfriend is and I want to know now!"

The chubby child on the other side of her Kimmunicator screen physically recoiled from the angry young woman. "Well, after Ron went all monkey-style on the Lowardians his chip blew out. There's no way of telling where he is. Honest."

"Do you want me to come over to your house and ask you in person?", Kim threatened.

Wade considered it for half a second, typed for a quarter second then answered. "He's back in Japan."

4

Master Sensei maintained a lotus position, sitting in front of three younger people in Yamanouchi's main shrine. Ronald Stoppable, the Ultimate Monkey Master as heralded by the Yamanouchi clan, and now seemingly contracted priest of the Kougon sect, sat on his knees before the old teacher in a brilliantly white gi. The corpse of Yori, now risen from the dead and damned as a shikabane, sat lotus style at Ron's left. Kim Possible sat on his right in full mission garb, because as ticked off as she was the girl knew some lair was going to blow up within the hour.

Kim started slowly. "I want to go over everything. The reason I want to go over everything is because I don't want to jump straight to the conclusion that my boyfriend went behind my back (half way around the world) just to be bonded to an exotic, attractive girl who thinks he's a god. Who by-and-by just so happenned to stop aging so she'll be as hot a ninja as she is now for-ev-er.

"Firstly, Ron Stoppable is the Ultimate Monkey Master. This isn't just from dumb luck from our (i.e. me and my boyfriend's) first mission against Lord Montgomery Fiske, hereafter known as Monkey Fist. It was fate that was inevitable not chance, as shown by countless prophecies accrued by Yamanouchi. Therefore, _my boyfriend_ meeting the beautiful and dutiful Yori was bound to happen as was her duty toward **my boyfriend**. When MY BOYFRIEND 'ascended' when we (i.e. me and my boyfriend) saved the world from the Lowardians, this poor attractive and athletic girl-who by the way assured me that it was **my boyfriend** and I's fate to be together, committed suicide because she hadn't served him enough or his rise meant her work is done or some other way too honorable for me to complain about reason. Because she felt so strongly about my boyfriend."

Ron raised his and to interrupt. "KP, you keep calling me your boyfriend a lot."

Kim's eyes clenched. "Shut up."

"Yes ma'am.", was the guarded reply.

No one noticed Yori's eyes narrow just the slightest bit at Kim's cowing of Ron.

"Secondly. There is such a thing as a Shikabane. An undead corpse that has every power of its form amplified, from its healing to its strength to its memories to its speed. An undead corpse that can shrug off cold and fire and hunger and solitary confinement or anything else short of spreading its brain all over a city. An undead corpse with only two things to its name: the regret that was so intense that it refused to die and a curse that, while only one power, can be any power from hypnotizing mankind to creating private dimensions to shooting fireballs to plain old death.

"But not to worry. There's another super secret sect of warriors beside Yamanouchi-the Kougon sect. They have been fighting these monsters for centuries. Each one of them is not only trained in a particular weapon, but has practiced a stinkin' near magical Zandan skill to perfection. And it just so happens that if they come across a Shikabane that hasn't killed yet (and how often would that happen given their obsessive regrets that trump the Grim Reaper's call), and is female and young like the daughter of the founder of their sect, these Kougons can perform four rituals. The first being binding said Shikabane with prayer scrolls that are otherwise normal but holy strips of paper so it doesn't get loose and start killing until the process is over. Second, they wipe the regret from her heart. Then the Shikabane willing gives up its curse and whatever superpower that curse granted. And to top the whole thing off this Shikabane chooses a living human to rein her in. In exchange this undead monster can hope to go to heaven by killing 108 undead monsters that are too male or too old or too blood soaked to go through this process.

"Now we get to the good part. The afore mentioned sexy, exotic teen ninja comes back from the dead because she's so obsessed with my boyfriend. And of course, the grand master of Yamanouchi knows the high bishop of Kougon and cut a deal. My boyfriend already is trained in the personal weapon to end all personal weapons, the Lotus Blade capable of being anything those imbued with Mystical Monkey Power will it to be. My boyfriend has already mastered a Zodan technique-Heavenly Tai Shing Pek War, also known as throw aliens through their own star ship. So why not marry the never age, wet dream that's just undead-superpowered-ninja enough to be the ultimate bad girl but just proven-devotion-heaven-bound to be the ultimate girl next door to my boyfriend."

Ron dared to speak again. "I wouldn't call it married, KP."

Kim turned on him so fast the room physically shook. No one could see her eye color, as they were only open enough to let the tears fly as she jerked her head around. "Do you even know how mad I am?"

"You went behind my back. So either you know I can't trust you or you think you can't trust me.

"Then you married Yori. Yes, 'bonded with in an intimate ceremony within religious practice' counts as married in my book.

"And I know, in my heart of hearts, you only did it to save someone who would have otherwise been killed. A friend. One of my friends, too. And I know she couldn't help loving you or revering you or whatever it is that kept her from rising because that's how I feel about you. There's absolutely no one who's done anything wrong, so I can't lash out."

Kim through her arms around Ron. "And now when we're supposed to go to college together as the first step together forever, you're about to go on this epic quest. Don't you know how afraid I am of losing you?"

"No.", Ron replied instantly. The boy actually was a bit suprised by Kim's real reaction. He had braced himself for a scolding, if KP hadn't jerked him away from his stupider ideas he might not be anywhere right now. But the idea that he wasn't going to be with her...

"It never occurred to me that you would lose me. I mean, the idea of not being with you no matter what never crossed my mind, KP. I wish you wouldn't call it marriage, because without you that just seems sick and wrong. Yes, Yori's corpse is going to be a part of my life until she gets to heaven. But I was thinking that would take time away from you like baby sitting Hana takes time away from you. I sure wasn't thinking going off to Norway and showing up to missions late or some other crazy thing that would never ever happen.

"I knew you knew I loved you. How could I think that you would think that I would think about leaving you for a moment?"

And sure his hair was wet from Kim tears. But Ron could feel the smile of her lips on his neck. And the Americans in the shrine knew in their heart of hearts, everything would be alright.

The Japanese did not.

5

Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable were finally back in Kim's bedroom. Ron sat on the bed while Kim stormed around him.

"I hate this!", Kim stated yet again. "This is supposed to be the summer between high school and college where I get my boyfriend all to myself. Instead, I have to watch him...cavort with the shikabane of a girl that kissed him before I did."

Ron raised his hand and Kim silenced him with a glare.

"I'm angry, Ronald Stoppable.", Kim told him. "I'm venting. Yes, I know it's because I'm jealous. I love you, she shouldn't. You're my boyfriend and I hate the fact that she needs you. I don't understand any of this: Mystical Monkey Power, Ultimate Monkey Master, the dead girl in my living room..."

Eventually, she sat down next to him. Kim laid her head on his shoulder. "If I could just figure this out, maybe I'd feel better."

At this, Ron perked up. "Why don't you just ask her then?"

Kim turned to glare at him. "No, seriously, KP. You don't understand this sitch and so you feel it's getting away from you. You know I love you and only want to be with you. You don't know what's going through Yori's mind. Ask her. Maybe it'll help."

Kim's hard face softened. "You're right. But if I still have a hard time with this, bear with me. Please and thank you?"

"You know I'll always have your back."

6

When Kim came back downstairs, she saw her mother's hand plunged as deeply as it could be into Yori's black and white-trimmed kimono. "What is the stinkin' sitch?", she yelled.

Mrs. Dr. Possible turned at the exclamation. Only then did Kim see the stethoscope she wore. "Kimmie!", she exclaimed in glee. "This is absolutely fascinating. I mean, I'm sure I would have gotten a kick out of not finding a heart beat or breathing even a pulse. But, hello-ninja! I'm sure Ronald's friend could fake those. But you should listen to her lack of gastrointestinal movements or reactions. It's amazing."

Kim arched and eyebrow. "So, your psyched about listening to nothing."

The woman pouted. "Well, it doesn't sound fun when you put it like that."

Then she turned to Yori's corpse. "I would simply love to get you under a nuclear magnetic resonance imager and take a few brain scans. It would totally make my colleagues flip their lids."

Yori nodded her head slowly. "It would be my honor, Dr. Possible-sama."

Kim finished walking up to the two. "Um, mom? Could you excuse me and Yori? We need to have a long talk in private. Please and thank you."

"Of course, Kimmie.", her mother told her. "I'll go get your father and brothers and see if I can't distract them with dinner."

And with that, the elder woman left the room. Ron's girlfriend, world saver and all around girl with a future and the corpse of a girl who through all of it away (or at least tried to) regarded each other for a few moments after she left.

"What do you feel about my boyfriend?", Kim asked. "And the truth this time. Not those lies about fate."

Yori frowned. "They were not lies, Possible-sama. I still have every reason to believe that Stoppable-san's and your fates are bound. His ascension is proof of that. It is simply fact not accepting fate can have dire consequences...one of which is seated before you. I simply...obfuscated my regard for a man to that man's consort. There is no crime in that.

"As for what I feel for Master Stoppable: Through no fault of his own, he has charmed his way into my heart. His bravery, helpfulness, the way he makes me smile...all the things I believe you see in him, I do as well. You can understand better than anyone how inevitable it is to love him. The difference you and I have is how much I respect him."

"I respect Ron.", Kim interjected.

Yori covered her hands with the sleeve of the opposite arm. "And how do you show this reverence? By scolding him. By giving him commands. This is not reverence at all. It is as if you have no idea the service Master Stoppable does us by simple being him."

"I don't get it.", Kim told her. "I love Ron to death. But I don't see how this Mystical Monkey Power, no matter how shiny, can be this important. So some scruffy super-villain thought he can use it to take over the world. Drakken thought the same about muffins and flowers and Pangea...just this year!"

Yori shook her head. "Master Stoppable is a savoir. Just as Buhhda Shakyamuni Siddhārtha Gautama saved the world from extremism, Buhhda Stoppable-san have given us just as much. He stands ready to defend the entire world, safe guarding the progeny of all our ancestors. As prophesied, he has saved the world many times. No one else could have shown a being such as the Han that one's own humanity is worth having. It is...how do you say, an 'added bonus' that he is such a wonderful man as Stoppable-san. To me, to those who properly understand, he is an embodiment of what life is supposed to be and why it is worth living. His child-like wonder, innocent heroism and so many other things that make him what he is are no accidents. But to you, it seems he is simply the 'added bonus'."

"Do you really think I 'disrespect' Ron?", Kim asked. Her tone wasn't accusatory, just honestly questioning.

"Please do not ask me questions that you do not wish the complete answer to, Possible-sama. I would be forced to mislead you for your own benefit."

"How can lying to me be good for me?!", Kim cried.

Yori faced her cooly. "How would Master Stoppable have reacted if he was asked to teach the Han to overcome the Yono? And how would Stoppable-san react to having a baby sister? If the heart is clear, what is true is readily revealed. When clouded, even by jealousy, the truth cannot be known."

"I am not jealous of you!", Kim told her. "Ron's mine, so I don't have any reason to be."

"At least we agree on that.", Yori replied. "A woman with a mantle of the rising sun, windows to her soul of the purest jade and porcelain beauty has absolutely no reason to call a plain orphan such as me 'exotic'. A woman who is still filled with enough life to bear him an heir (let alone the perfect hips for the task) has no reason to fear being usurped by the corpse of a girl who has already lost him to her. Stoppable-san is drawn to life. Vigor. I gave all of that up in a fit of self-contempt.

"The reason I wanted Master Stoppable for my contracted priest isn't to take your place, Possible-sama. It is to show him that I can be a woman cloaked with the armor of righteousness. That I can be someone he can be proud of. And maybe, when I ascend to heaven after my 108, he can smile upon me so that all may know what made me human was never lost."

"So please.", Yori continued. "I know that I have little place to ask anything of you, Possible-sama. But believe that I do not wish to upset either you or Stoppable-san by threatening your relationship in any way. I will aid you in understanding Master Stoppable's place in our world, but only at a pace you invite. I am going to need Master Stoppable for...acquiring the 108. But I will apologize in any way you need me to for taking you from Master Stoppable's bed."

"Oh, we haven't...", Kim trailed off when Yori's corpse' expression implied that was the wrong answer. "Uh...I mean, no apology necessary."

7

Yori and Ron approached the house with only her single duffel bag. His constant hockey jersey and her kimono swished in time with each other. Every step they took mirrored the others. Even they could not tell who was leading who.

"Possible-sama tells me that she is not jealous of our contract, Ron-kun.", Yori mentioned.

"I have ten KP size finger nail marks in my arm that say otherwise.", Ron said while rolling his eyes.

"This is your home?", Yori asked.

"This is Hanna's home.", Ron told her. "The rest of the fam just tries to survive. Which is really easy when she's in fan blade time. Like bullet time but on the ceiling, you know.

"Hopefully, she'll help sell you to my parents. They've been looking for a live-in-nanny, but strangely enough no one seems to be taken with her."

Yori nodded as Ron opened the door. "It will be my honor to help with the Han in anyway I can."

Hanna was inside running from wall to wall as she tended to. Once she spotted her brother, the baby let loose a coo and changed course to him. Her attitude changed as soon as she spotted Yori's corpse standing behind Ron.

Hanna bared her toothless gums in anger for the first time in her life. The baby's arms went from outstretched 'pick me up' to 'rip you to shreds' instantly. Ron barely caught her as she lept toward the girl. He felt if he was back in the talent show juggling as he tried to keep a hold on Hanna. The baby clawed the air mercilessly in her attempt to attack Yori. The shikabane stepped backwards slowly away from the child while hiding behind her duffel bag.

Once Ron managed to shut the door on Hanna, he tried to catch his breath. "Everyone said she had a strong grip, but no one mentioned her bite. Those gums hurt!"

Yori hid her smile, respecting the new problem. "The Han realizes what I actually am, Stoppable-san."

Ron rubbed the back of his head. "Uh yeah. Could you, maybe, wait in my tree house out back while I think of something?"

"Thank you for your generosity, Master Stoppable.", Yori said with a bow.

Ron awkwardly returned the bow then ducked back into the house. A split second later, anyone who cared to could hear Ron's screams. "Ow, I need those fingers, Hanna. For like pressing things and holding onto things and this one thing KP likes but I shouldn't be talking to a baby about that/"

The monster walked around the house to the backyard. In the center of the yard was a single, sturdy tree. An aging shack was nestled in its branches. Yori walked to the base of the tree and checked for observers. Once she convinced herself that there were no witnesses, she flexed her knees and flew the length of the trunk into the tree house with her duffel in a single leap.

The girl took stock of Ron's tree house. There appeared to be a wall scroll emblazened with the portrait of a fierce warrior-ruler as the only decoration. A couch of questionable age and unquestionable usefulness was the only furnishing. There was a myriad of brik-a-brak, all seemingly innocuous yet ready to be fashioned into any number of unlikely weapons. The American-style recoil based sling shot was proof of that. It was a ninja's house. It was Ron-kun's spirit's home. Yori, for the first time in a long time, felt some measure of peace here.

"Psst!", she heard Ron stage whisper. Yori went to the cut hole in the tree house. Ron hung his head out of the attic window, while Rufus stood on the sill. Rufus' reaction to her was no where near as violent as the Han's. She did not know if it was because the animal could feel the contract through the mystical monkey power he wielded or if it was simply because she was down wind. Either way, Rufus stood staring at her puzzled while scratching his head.

"Yori,", Ron continued. "I don't know how much trouble it'll take to get you into the house, so I might be a while."

"If it would be easier, I can remain here.", Yori replied. "I am already such a burden. It would do me no harm to be sheltered in your sanctuary."

Ron frowned. "Are you sure you want to sleep out there? I mean, I don't even have any clean blankets and they all smell like I do in the morning."

Yori's eyes narrowed slyly. "I don't really need to sleep. I am without need after all. I apologize-I am dead after all."

Rufus snapped his claws as he realized what he had been trying to determine about Yori this whole time. Then it dawned on him what that meant. The naked mole rat cringed away from the sill. His guilt over his reaction led him to try to cover it, but in the end he decided to jump down from the sill and retreat into Ron's bedroom.

The girl continued unabated. "But it may get chilly later in the night. Might I use one of your blankets, despite...?"

Ron nodded readily. "Of course, let me just see which one has the least naco stains on it."

His Shikabane Hime giggled as he searched. "As if that would matter to me, Ron-kun."

Ron returned to the window and threw a black comforter the few feet that seperated his room's window and the tree house's. Yori caught it unerringly. "Domo arigato, Master Stoppable-san."

"Well, good night?", Ron called out before retreating into his room. He had left the window open, so even if she had not been trained in the way of the shadow warriors all her life or had her senses heightened by their revival in death or was mystically bonded to the speaker she probably would have heard the ensuing words anyway. As it was, she perceived them as well as if she was in the room.

"What's got you so razzled, little buddy?"

"Oh, Yori. Uh yeah, she kind of is. I mean, they told me that a lot. But it's not like she's vampire-pale or zombie-gray or something so I mean maybe she's only a little dead?"

"Until she goes to heaven, Rufus."

"I don't know. It's supposed to be after she's killed 108 monsters. But monster's don't exactly grow on trees...unless there was some sort-of monster fruit. That would go on trees. Squeeze them to get Monster Juice. Who would want to drink monster juice? Monsters might but that'd be monsters drinking monsters and that's just sick and wrong!"

Yori continued to listen to Ron-kun's ramblings. She held the blanket to her nose and took her first breath on American soil, breathing in the scent. She spread the comforter in the tree house and went through a yoga kata. In every position, she used the scent of Ron-kun on the blanket as the living would use incense: an aid in reminding one-self to breath as deeply as one could in meditation.

Even though the two were in seperate buildings, Yori and Ron were physically closer here than they were on seperate floors of Possible-baka's house. She thought she could feel him resting peacefully because of the contract, but she may have been fooling herself.

Oh well. At least she was with him now.

**Author's Notes:**

Sorry to just jack everyone who read what looked like four chapters with the re-edit. Here's why.

I tend to write very short chapters, regardless of the quality of the particular fan fiction. My best (or at least, best recieved/reviewed) has a chapter of 214 words. My worst (or at least, most questionable) have chapters with thousands. I write fan fiction with the idea of a scene or a step in the story in my head, throw it against the screen and see what sticks. Some times that gives a spottanaety [sp?] and flow that would otherwise not exist. Some times it just compounds grammatical mistakes with plot mistakes.

In the original fourth chapter, I ended up introducing a new setting and an idea best left delayed or unanswered while not including another hint/clue/tell that should have been in the first true chapter.

Oh, man that was a run on sentence. Let's try this again.

The first step of this story is not to set up the 'crossover lie'. i.e. Some invention of the author that says 'this series' meets 'that series' before the actual story begins. It was to assure the audience of a few things. Yori is a) dead b) monstrous c) is sitting on a higher but unexplored power level. Kim sees her as a problem (Kim's character flaw isn't OCD as shown by her allowing Bonnie to retake cheer leading captain. It's jealousy as shown by numerous instances throughout the show.) Ron is innocently clueless-how deep he's in, his abilities unleashed, what he means to other people, etc. etc.

Originally, 0 of 108 was posted in four parts. The fourth part introduced some ideas that were completely irrelevant. A new setting and an idea best left untouched so far was part of it. The re-edit allowed the inclusion of the Hanna and Rufus reaction. It may be overselling it now, but having these reactions throughout may come across as beating a dead horse.

Each 'actual' chapter of this story will be a number increase toward the end goal of 108 shikabane killed. For those of you who have seen the anime's second season...yes, I know. For those of you who only know Kim Possible...I'm not going to tell you _not_ to watch an excellent Japanese horror show that's posted by the company on youtube and hulu and funimation and other legal sites. But there are some kicks in the teeth and the end plot of this story will take it into account. That being said, I'd like to say that chapters won't be posted # of 108, a b c and reformatted to a singular chapter after the fact...but that would be a lie. Don't let that stop you from reviewing at any time-I believe I'd take criticism into account before reformatting. Especially if the audience sees problems as the murder rate rises.


	2. 1 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Ron Stoppable wandered down stairs in his boxers. He still rubbed his eyes and his animal side guided his feet. He had already used the bathroom. Now his primary feelings was this inexplicable draw as if some sort of supernatural summons and hunger. Hunger found his path to the kitchen. The pull drew his sight to Yori in a white ju-jitsu gi.

"Ohio, Ron-kun.", Yori greeted gently.

"Ah!", the boy yelped. Waking to full alertness rapidly, his memories flooded back. Yori's bonding post-mortem. KP's concerns. Rufus wanting a moment before joining him down stairs, which seemed weird at the time but considering last night and the corpse in the kitchen...

Oh, and he was in his boxers.

"Ah!", he yelped again. Ron threw his large hands over his under wear.

Yori giggled. "You and your American-styled modesty. As if there was anyone left who had not seen your boxer shorts after the Nakasumi kidnapping attempt you foiled. The parade was televised."

Ron nodded. "You know, Japan may not be the only country where that's true."

"Here, I've made spring rolls for breakfast.", Yori told him holding out a tray of them.

Ron licked his lips. He then picked up the chop sticks on the tray. Then he proceeded to pick up nothing but air as Yori pulled the tray away.

Ron stood crest-fallen. "Aw man, not this again."

"It will be your honor to be able to practice in the traditional manner, Master Stoppable.", Yori replied.

Ron frowned, sighed, blew his bangs from his face and decried his fate. "Wait a minute.", he began. "How are you in the house with Han/

Ron stabbed at the tray with chop sticks. He got nothing but air as the corpse yanked the tray away. He tried jabbing behind where the tray was to intercept it after the yank, but Yori merely lowered it. Ron jabbed at the tray hard enough to follow the drop but the tray was raised away from him.

Yori smiled. "Oh, you and your American-style distractions. Your mother took Hanna to the park. Stoppable-san went to work. Anything further that you wished to know, Ron-kun?"

Ron shook his head. "nooooo", he uttered dejectedly.

A spark of blue entered Ron's eye and a spring roll was grabbed. But also a sharp 'clang' rang out as two chop stick sized dents appeared in the tray. Ron made a second jab and the shikabane simply pulled the tray away at a speed no living person could reason to match. Ron didn't reason and let his reflexes capture another spring roll. Soon, the contest was in earnest and any normal observer would only see streaks of motions. Perhaps an occassional blue glow on Ron's part. Perhaps Yori's inhuman flexing. And maybe the occassional spark as the tray gained another scratch and lost a filing heated into glowing.

Soon, Ron was fed but tired. "That was great, Yori. Way better than KP trying to deep fry milk. I'm going back to bed."

Yori laughed out loud. "Of course, it will be our honor to continue morning's practice outside."

"Of course, right, heh heh.", Ron agreed sarcastically. "Well, if I'm going outside, let me get something on."

2

In front of the tree, was Yori and Ron. On the other side of Ron (way on the other side of Ron) was Rufus.

Yori motioned with a red fan decorated with steel teeth. Ron motioned with an identically shaped fan that was a pale blue crystal throughout. Rufus followed the motions designed for humans as best he could. At first Yori was teaching Ron her personal kata. Soon enough, she was mimicking his motions. No, that was wrong-following him. He would bring his fan in his right hand to cover the left side of his waist and slowly draw it to the right while snapping his fist from its hiding place. She would motion a stab. He would snap his fan close and lash out at an imaginary opponent farther away while she would clenched the closed fan and strike with a fist. He would spin in a roundhouse kick and she would sweep her whole body in a path underneath.

The katas were disimilar and performed meters from each other. The binding of them seemed seamless.

With a few cleansing breaths, Ron felt refreshed, relaxed and aware. Something he recalled from his week at Yaumanouchi but never seemed to be able to do at Middleton high.

"I become dirty expending myself with you, Ron-kun.", Yori noticed. Ron agreed that Yori's brilliantly white gi had some markings from grass and dirt.

Yori continued. "I must ask you something. It embarrases me. I only ask because of my weakness. I would not otherwise.

"Will you help me, Master?"

Ron thought the build up wasn't needed. "Sure. With what?"

3

Kim Possible opened the door to Ron's house with a key she had for years. The only noise she heard was the shower running.

A not new thought occurred to her. Yori was right in her own round about way that she should definitely not interfere with Kim and Ron's relationship. And this was supposed to be a summer with her boyfriend before college. Maybe surprising that BFBF in the shower would make a good start on that.

Kim stepped against the wall all the way up the stairs to take away any possibility of them creaking. Seeing no one and the bathroom door open, she sneaked past Ron's parent's bedroom and Hanna's nursery. The girl continued, pressed against the wall and sprang out into the bathroom's doorway.

Then Kim Possible screamed like no other.

The sight was Ron in a white gi scrubbing a naked Yori's foot while steaming water and soapy suds cascaded down her toned form.

Kim turned instantly to storm away. Before she got a step Ron had rebalanced Yori, raced through the room and grabbed her arm.

"Let go of me right this very instance, Ronald Stoppable.", Kim told him. She used the same serious tone of voice that her father did when Dr. Possible assured him of his possibility of a deep space probe ride to the center of a black hole.

"KP, Yori committed suicide bathing alone.", Ron blurted out.

Kim spun on him to lay into the boy. But in that turn she caught sight of Yori without Ron at her side. She heard Ron's voice assuring the shikabane that he was still with her. But the sight of Yori grasping the shower curtain with all her might, shivering in the hot water, biting her lip to keep from screaming took its toll on Kim.

"Oh god.", she uttered. The girl collapsed in the door frame.

"I'm sorry, Ron. I had this idea coming up here. You know, for just us. Then I saw and I...I'm sorry I blew up at you. I should have trusted you. You..um, finish up here. I'll wait for you in your room."

Yori tried to speak. "That is not neccessecc...That is not needed, Possible-sama. I made a promise to you." Yori drew in a deep breath obviously meant to steady her for an act that seemed to take an incredible amount of will. "I can finish bathing...by myself."

Kim instantly picked herself up and raced to Yori. "Oh...no. Ron can help you. I don't mind. Really. Take all the time you need."

Yori bowed her head. "Arigato, Possible-sama."

Kim came out of the bathroom. "I'll be in the attic, waiting for you.", she said to Ron. With a peck on the cheek, she left to his bedroom.

Kim flopped down on his bed. From that position, she caught sight of Rufus munching on a piece of cheese thoughtfully while intermittently shaking his head.

"Tell me about it.", Kim told the naked mole rat. Rufus squeakily agreed.

The teen's mood seemed to ride a roller coaster the next few minutes, unseen since a Moodulator chip blew up on her neck. She imagined Ron's large hands lathered with shower suds and smiled. She imagined those hands on Yori's body...no, Yori's corpse and frowned. When the sounds of running water ended, her attitude brightened. Just as it darkened as she heard Yori explain how her panties blended in with her school-girl plaid skirt to dissuade 'baka-hentai'.

After Yori was dressed (she sure dressed loudly enough, Kim thought), Ron poked his head up through the doorway to his room. Kim nearly pulled him the rest of the way. When he was standing with her, Kim kissed him as hard as she dared.

"Wow.", was Ron's first response. The second was a dopey grin. The third was a suspicious glance.

Kim reassured him. "I'm your girlfriend. Your _only_ girlfriend. It's high time I started acting like one."

4

Yori, dressed in her disguise as a Japanese or Catholic school girl, nearly skipped outside. With the way she felt after Ron had washed her, she was surprised she didn't glide. Returning to the base of the tree, Yori again checked for witnesses before leaping up into the tree house.

Yori wrapped herself in Ron's blanket before laying on the couch. She didn't know if it was just the hot shower raising her body temperature to something approaching healthy or just the afterglow of the experience but she felt joyously warm. Well, mixed with tense anticipation. It was nearly like an inexperienced teenager going through a bout of akwardness on the path to some new often hoped for event. Weird.

The shikabane wrapped the blanket around herself enjoying the heat. It was as if the blanket itself pulled in tighter, trying to power itself onto her body. She happily let it. Then came a wash of hesitation then surprise. But the warmth returned and she ignored the moment's interruption. She continued to revel in it, even as a restless tenseness built. Her corpse rolled in the heat and the urgency until she rolled off the couch.

Yori didn't stop her motions until a sudden release of the building anticipation. She stretched her whole length. She stretched as much as she could but still couldn't reach...whatever it was she was reaching for. Then it snapped and the girl relaxed again.

The girl didn't get back onto the couch. She just luxuriated in the gentle spreading warmth. While not the rising heat, it felt...like the warmth was contentment as opposed to the heat's ecstasy. But still, she could perceive her environment with an even greater clarity than she remembered from the day before. She would only move if she had to.

The shikabane did not doze while motionless. Yori wondered if she could still sleep. She was told she'd be able to eat if not exactly extract nutrients from food. While aware of every passing microsecond, her calmed state allowed her to ignore the passage of time. She didn't notice it was nearly exactly a sleep cycle later Ron called for her.

Looking out of the tree house' window, she confirmed no one would see a lithe girl fall from third-story height.

5

Yori walked in the house to find Ron and _her_ standing very close to each other. The small amount of apprehension that Ron showed amused her greatly. Kim smiled gently then went back to the kitchen sink. The living girl ran her finger over her teeth, gargled with water, made a show of spraying her mouth with the sink's hose and gargled again. Kim then came back to Ron and pecked his cheek. Ron relented and kissed his girl friend.

Kim hung on his arm as he turned. "Yori, Kim had a question."

"It will be my honor to help you with any information, Possible-sama."

Kim perkily asked away. "You only brought a duffel bag with you, right? Is there anything in it besides gold, the weapons our ride back let you sneak through customs, a black and a white gi, and the clothes you're wearing now?"

Yori's arched an eye brow. "I also brought my memorial's kimono. You saw it yesterday evening. And a ceremonial robe issued to all shikabane hime."

"We need to get you some clothes, stat.", Kim said. "If you're gonna be with us in America blending in, you need to _blend in_."

The girl turned to her Kimmunicator. "Hey, Wade."

The ever present and awake boy genius answered. "Hey, Kim. What's up?"

"Can you create a debit account and card with the equivalent of say, two pounds - I mean a kilogram - of gold?", Kim instructed while checking with Yori to make sure she had that much. "We're going on a Club Banana shopping spree for an entire new wardrobe. Please and thank you."

"Oh, sure Kim." Wade replied. "But why not just forward it to your employee account?"

"It's for Yori.", the girl informed.

"But Kim...Yori's listed as deceased. I have her death certificate up on a monitor. Do you know how difficult it's going to be to legally open an account, in another country no less, for a dead/

"Done.", Wade said as he stopped typing.

"You rock, Wade.", Kim said as she signed off. Then to Yori, "We are gonna get you spankin'."

As they walked out to the Sloth, Kim continued. "But we may have to either take the long way or fly over the center of the city. It's still being rebuilt after the Invasion. Apparently, Warmonga was just after me and Drakken and 80 percent of there giant robot thingies landed in Middleton."

Ron nodded. "By the way KP: How did Dr.s Possible get your house rebuilt so fast?"

"Apparently the Loydd's of London insurance plan that covers the tw'eebs for fusion experiments and rocket launches also covers for losses of extraterrestrial origin."

6

"A card with no limit and a need to look real hot, real quick.", Monique rejoiced. "Girl, you came to the right place and talkin' to the right woman."

Kim put a hand as if to physically ward off her friend's enthusiasm. "Let's not be too hasty."

Monique pointed at her. "I had to cover your shift again for one of you missions again. I get to have a little fun when you bring it to my doorstep. If you were anyone else, you'd be as out of a job as Ron."

Ron disagreed. "No, I still have a job. Surprisingly, knowing Mr. Smarty personally and occasionally remaining in frame when magazines take pictures of Kim tends to let me make up shifts I miss with overnight inventory restocks."

Yori frowned. "You do not keep yourself available for preserving the world full-time, Stoppable-san?"

"Can't do that, Yori.", Ron reminded. "The money to take your girlfriend on dates doesn't grow on trees."

"But she has her own job. Why does not Possible-sama pay for wherever it is she wants to go?", Yori questioned.

"That didn't go over so well.", Ron replied.

The girl rolled her eyes as if the world was just messed up that way and tried another tactic. "What about your, how do you say, royalties? You told me you invented the Naco for Bueno Nacho and within a few months they sent you ninety and nine million dollars. Or was that one of your American-style jokes?"

"No, that's all true.", Ron assured. "But after Drakken stole it because I was carrying it on me, my dad set up a trust fund. I can't really touch any of it until I'm 18."

"But that was a few weeks ago, Ron.", Kim reminded.

"**Holy Moly!** I'm a billionaire!", Ron blurted out. Then he started pointing at his fingers as if he was a kindergartner learning to count. "Well, okay, not quite billionaire. I still uphold the 'Holy Moly'.

"But don't worry, KP. No more diamonds, gold or mercenary S.W.A.T. squads for the Ron Man."

Yori seemed confused again. "But those all seem like such wise investments, Stoppable-san."

"How is a S.W.A.T team an investment?", Monique nearly accused.

Before Yori could answer, Kim stepped in. "None of this is getting Yori into any more clothes."

Monique agreed. "You're right, girl friend. Come on, let's get you some BTB." With that, she hustled Yori off toward the dressing rooms while yanking from the racks.

Ron looked puzzled. "Boy-toy bait.", Kim explained.

A moment later, Kim and Ron stood with Monique at the entrance to the dressing rooms. Yori stood before them in pink slacks and a white t-shirt with an emblazened pink heart with a hint of mid-riff showing. All three shook their heads and the shikabane hime walked back into the dressing rooms. She returned dressed in large auburn shorts and a light blue hoody. The three shook their heads again.

Then Kim noticed something. "Those are the clothes I wear."

Yori returned wearing a tight, black, lightweight turtle neck and burgundy mini-skirt.

"I'm wearing that right now!", Kim protested.

"Do you not like these clothes, Stoppable-san. You've disapproved of everything I've tried on so far.", Yori hoped, er, asked. Kim stared down Ron.

"Oh, no. I like...no, love those clothes. It's just that, um...never be normal! I mean, that's my motto, right. You have to be your own person, Yori. What makes Kim beautiful may not work on...no, I mean definitely won't work on you." Ron ran his tongue around his mouth to count his teeth and assumed no one was offended because no one slapped any out his mouth.

Monique began anew. "I think we need to get started with a man's opinion. Ron, what do you think is Yori's best physical feature?"

Ron stared at the ceiling, wishing for just one break. When he brought his gaze down, he met Kim's. "Go ahead, Ronald. What's Yori's best feature?"

_Okay, think Ron Man! You've dodged line backers and spinning tops of doom. You can figure your way out of this. Okay, Kim has that bright red hair. And the eyes. And the mid-riff. And the...well, I couldn't very well say that, anyway. Um, okay they're staring at you..._

"Her legs?", Ron guessed. "I mean, KP's got so much going on from the mid-riff up. What if Yori went the other way? I mean, lesser men might not dig her six-pack and the smoky black eyes/"

Monique cut him off. "What do you mean six-pack? I've never seen this child out of the uniform she walked in in."

"Please, don't ask.", the other three replied in unison.

Monique cocked her head. "You know what? I'm gonna grab some skirts and I'll be back. You can deal with your own weirdness alone for a few minutes."

The Zombie Mayhem theme played out of thin air. A rudely awakened Rufus poked his head out of Ron's pocket to hold up his ringing cell phone.

"Hey, Felix.", Ron started. "Yeah, yeah. We're just finishing up some clothes shopping. We'll be over in a half-hour or so."

Ron listened for a second. "Yep, KP and another girl. Why?"

Ron frowned. "Oooooo-kay...."

The boy turned to the others after he hung up. "We're headed over to Felix' in like, a couple of hours?"

7

Yori didn't act like she minded the micro-skirt Monique convinced her into. But something scratched at the back of Ron's...well, it certainly couldn't be _soul_ so...intuition? The boy shook it off and held KP's hand a little tighter as they walked up the path to Felix' house. After ringing the doorbell, it was opened by Zita.

The three stepped through the door to see Felix laid out on the couch. "I hope you don't mind if I don't get up.", Felix said pleasantly.

Yori was about to reply, but then took Kim's subcouncious cringe into account. "Oh.", she realized.

Zita returned to the couch and lifted up Felix' legs to sit under them. "I was in the middle of wearing Felix out with some strenuous movement. I hope you don't mind the show."

"You don't have to make anti-atrophy exercises sound so suggestive.", Felix mock-protested.

Zita bended one of his toes back and forth. "That wasn't suggestive." Zita then licked the toe. "This is suggestive."

"Are we gonna play Castle Crashers of Atrophied Toe Tasting?", Ron asked concerned. He then apologized to Yori. "Because if we're playing Toe Tasting I think I'm gonna lose. I have no idea what the difference between active and paralyzed tastes like. Pumpkin? They're kind of stationary."

"Don't worry man.", Felix assured. "The X-Box is already primed."

With Felix and Zita taking up the entire couch; Kim, Ron and Yori sat from right to left on the floor. Zita didn't take up a controller, still moving Felix' legs.

The paraplegic was surprised at the progression of the game. He expected Kim to be in last place: knowing her Zombie Mayhem skills, he knew saving the world skills did not transfer to video games. So the girl put every experience point she got into strength, hoping that any blow that actually connected with a bad guy would do something. Ron took just health and ran head long into every fray. Felix pounded out magical spells while staying as far away as enemies as possible. But Yori sat in first place. She picked only speed, and would steal every other player's kills by stabbing the enemy the final time to register the experience.

"Nice playing.", Felix said sarcastically.

"Domo.", Yori agreed in a smug tone.

Felix glared at the back of the new girl's head. Then he noticed something. Zita shifted everytime she moved him. Kim bounced around in frustration hoping her on screen guy would move faster and actually get to an enemy. Ron bounced playfully back and forth against her, like they had some subtle communication going on. Yori...just sat there. Felix didn't think she moved anything but her thumbs since the game started levels ago. He wanted to change positions so he could make sure the girl blinked.

"How did your condition occur, Renton-san?", Yori asked in a making-small talk voice. "Or would that be pyring?"

Kim gave horrified glances to Yori and Ron which allowed Yori to steal more of her kills and therefore experience. "It's no problem, Yori.", Felix replied while keeping watch over his own character. "I was in a car accident when I was very little. My father was killed instantly by the steering column. I was sustained major nerve damage, so I can't actually stand but I do get some sensation."

"I'll give you some sensation from the waist down, chico.", Zita teased.

"Hush, you.", Felix said pleasantly. "Mom was lucky. She was thrown clear of the car and apparently didn't get a scratch on her. But she's always been lucky like that. I haven't even seen her sick."

Yori clenched her brow. "Your mother was in the crash with you and didn't receive any injuries despite your father dying. She doesn't get hurt or sick. Can I say she is very devoted to you?"

"Well, we're all we have.", Felix said, taking advantage of Yori's split concentraiton to make up for lost experience. "Except for Zita, now, of course."

"Of course.", Yori politely agreed. "Could you tell me what is your mother's main passion in life, Renton-san?"

Now it was Felix' turn to clench his brow. "Yes. It's cybernetics. It's been her main work since the accident. She researches over at Middleton Space Center with Dr. Porter."

"Is she there now?", Yori asked.

Felix shook his head. "No, she's in the basement, working on some tentacle propulsion device."

Yori nodded. "Thank you for sharing. I did not mean to overstep."

Felix nodded. "No, that's okay."

Felix noted that he had made some headway in catching up to Yori in the experience standings. But mostly his second place was due to Ron and Kim trying to surprise each other with pecks on the cheek. One could tell every time their lips met at the same time with the quick "Jinx, you owe me a soda." whispered by one or the other.

"May I be excused?", Yori said handing the controller off. "Zita may play my part until I return. Which is the way?"

"Oh, through there.", Zita instructed.

Yori bowed slightly and left. Ron looked away for a moment. Yori was dead, well, undead. And he didn't remember eating or even drinking anything since her death. Kim then scored a quick two pecks on his neck while his head was turned. The Ron Man couldn't let his girlfriend get away with that, could he. Ron whistle casually in time with the game music and then went in for the kill. He met Kim's lips and was told.

"Jinx, you owe me a soda."

8

Yori walked down the stairs to the basement, thankful that her blazer made up for some modesty that micro-skirt refused to allow. She came upon a cluttered workshop. Against the far wall was a blonde woman who seemed average looking enough...except for having six arms instead of the usual two. Yori coughed politely.

The woman turned abruptly. One arm whipped off the welding glasses to reveal hazy, swirling, gray blue eyes. Another wiped the sweat from her brow. Another smoothed out the MSC lab coat she wore. Another brought a hand to her mouth as if to calm down from surprise and not hide the razor rows of teeth. One reached behind her to grab something off the table. The last held its hand out, as if to gesture calm to the intruder. "Don't worry about the extra arms, dear. I'm a cyberneticist. I wear these during my work to help with certain welding and soldering projects."

Yori nodded. "That is one explanation, Renton-sama. I have another. If you will do me the kindness of listening to it, we may be able to expedite this.

"You and Felix moved to town recently, after moving to another town from another and another. What if that was spurred everytime someone caught you in your corpse' true form. They would have to 'disappear' to keep your secret. And you would have to move to allay suspicion.

That secret you were trying to keep is that you did indeed die the night your husband crashed the car. While you were dying, you heard the screams of your child and refused to let him face the world alone. So your seemingly miraculous escape from injury was merely a much less holy rise away from the grave. Every action you've taken since then has been for Renton-san...and no one else. And the new ability you acquired, the ability to make metal come alive (like the car that paralyzed your son and killed your husband seemed to jump away under its own control), made your work jump by leaps and bounds."

The blonde woman narrowed her eyes. "If what you were saying had any shred of truth to it...and that's a big if. What harm would it be for a mother to want to care for her son so much?"

Yori conceded. "Of course, who could fault a mother caring for her paralyzed son. Perhaps more could condemn a woman who killed how many family friends, family...members to conceal the truth about her undeath? Maybe a few more could blame a woman who has utilized her medical expertise on behalf of only one patient and shared her knowledge not with the scientific or healthcare communities, but with arms manufacturers seeking to maximize casualties of those who fall to unmanned weapon systems. A more effective mine, a roving turret...do they not make better arguements to the worth of a woman's soul than a single man in a wheel chair? Particularly when no one else in the world has their special needs child in a advent wheel chair."

"Go tell your boyfriends, your brothers.", the woman spat. "They won't believe you. They never do. And then I'll get rid of you and move on! And with Felix in college, no one'll find me again."

Yori stepped down to the floor. "You mistake my intention, Renton-sama. I have no need to alert any authority to this situation to handle it."

Felix's mom's corpse brought the hand from her jacket back to the workbench she was at. A screen lit up with a superficial scan of Yori. It revealed a temperature that was lethally low and a complete lack of internal movement. "You're a monster too!", she accused.

"At least we agree on what we are.", Yori replied. "What we need to agree on next was how to de-animate you."

"You'll have the devil's own time trying to take me away from my son.", the shikabane warned.

Yori pursed her lips. "You are a trained scientist, taught to understand complex concepts through thorough research. My time alive was spent learning...simpler things."

With a flick of the girl's wrist, the lights went out as a shriuken hit the light switch. The monster clapped four of its hands and the lights came back on.

Just in time to see Yori's knee come down with the girl's entire weight on the woman's skull. The elder monster pushed Yori off of itself while Yori grabbed at the electrical cords of equipment on the workbench. The waveform monitor came off its shelf as Mrs. Renton pushed the girl and away and came crashing down on the woman's head. Yori swung the device in an arc around herself. The woman blocked with her left hands but only met cords:the device traveled on a shorter path and connected with her skull again.

Mrs. Renton's left hands grabbed the cords and pulled them away from Yori. Yori let her and stepped from the ground with her left foot to connect her right knee to the woman's chin. The girl's right elbow came down on top of her brain pan. Pulling with elbow and 'stepping' with the knee, the dead ninja got her other knee to connect with her opponent's face.

The woman's six arms lashed out blindly. Before they could connect, Yori pushed off the shikabane and back flipped to her feet. Yori blocked out the woman's right arms with her left and the left ones with her right, driving her left foot up to connect with the woman's chin; but not before the word "Defend" was uttered.

Metal tentacles came at Yori from all sides. Yori ducked two from the cieling, pulled her right leg from one from the desk but her left leg was caught by one from the wall. Yori spun into the one that caught her which wrapped it around her leg more. When Mrs. Renton tried to stand up, Yori grabbed one of the ceiling tentacles on its second attempt and pulled the robot from its moorings. The woman used her multiple hands to steady herself and caught another hard blow to the head as Yori whipped the dead tentacle against her face. Yori kicked and pulled the robot anchoring her foot from the wall.

With her half step off balance, Yori stepped forward low. The two remaining tentacles shot toward her. The girl continued her momentum and flipped over them, landing on her back but allowing her right leg to connect with Mrs. Renton's left knee (popping it out of the socket). As the woman collapsed, Yori whipped the robot around her left leg around the monster's neck.

Using an impossible level of strength and control, Yori rolled backwards. Mrs. Renton used all six hands to pull on the steel and titanium wrapped around her neck, dropping the laser she intended to use on the ninja. When the remaining tentacles struck, they landed in Mrs. Renton's exposed torso and not the girl they had targeted. The tentacles tried to pull out of the monster to try again and with the robot wrapped around her vocal cords, she couldn't command them not to. Yori reached up and grabbed the metal noose with both hands and pressed away with her right leg.

The elder corpse felt her neck bones breaking, ligaments snapping, muscle ripping and skin tearing. She was struck dumb by the constriction and couldn't even cry out dying curses. The severing of her larynx and esophagus was nothing compared to the crushing force that destroyed her spine. Mrs. Renton was left wagging her jaw and eye lids as her head was the only thing still connected to her brain.

Yori held her fist above the severed head. It mouthed the words 'Don't tell my son what I became.'. Yori shook her head. "That may be for Master Stoppable to decide." The girl's fist broke the skull and destroyed the brain.

Yori ignored the tentacles trying to extract themselves from the now defunct and decaying corpse suspended above her. She stalked back up the stairs to the bathroom she had inquired about earlier. It would probably be best if there was no tell tale sign of the shikabane hime's first...success.

9

Yori's crasher fought and won the right to kiss the last princess. The other teens laughed hysterically.

"It is getting late, Stoppable-san.", Yori stated calmly. "Perhaps it is time to return to your family and allow Possible-sama to return to hers?"

"Okay.", Ron said. "Come on, KP. You put up a good fight."

Kim stood and stretched next to Ron. "I spent most of the game on my back waiting to come back to life to fight at your side. Oh, no offense."

Zita countered. "When you leave, I'm gonna put Felix on his back."

Ron shook his head. "Alright, you're just reaching now. Catch you later, Felix."

Felix waved his good-bye from the couch as Yori, Ron and Kim left. Zita closed the door behind them with a sly smile.

"It's good that they found each other.", Kim stated as she repossessed Ron's arm.

"And it's good they did.", Ron stated. "My neck couldn't take any more claw marks."

"I'm not that jealous.", Kim argued.

Before that discussion could get raging again, Yori began to speak. Fortunately, the occupants of the house were otherwise occupied. What began as whispered confession jumped to hushed arguement. Unfortunately, they managed not to notice the man with binoculars and a long distance microphone a mile away.

The man perched in a tree, despite the encumberance his dark blue Zen Buhhdist monks robe gave him. He quietly observed the three teens in the yard. Yori had bowed her head and told Ron Stoppable what she had done in very explicit detail. Kim's hair nearly danced around her as she lit up. Ron just sat down with the weight of three worlds on his shoulders. As Kim started to hiss at Yori, Yori pointed out that deep in her heart of hearts the American must know she was right; otherwise Kim would have just yelled for the world to hear. Kim ground her teeth and shook with rage and that motivated Ron to get up, only to soothe her. Yori insisted Ron not be mad at her, she was only fulfilling the contract.

The monk dialed a phone number into his cell and waited for the international connection. "Hello, respected brother.", he began in native Japanese. "The contract between Yori Yaumanouchi and Ronald Stoppable is being fulfilled. He has the control over his bound monster that we have come to expect and demand from one of our number. I see no reason for further monitoring. If anything, I would recommend a bit of...moral reassurance."

11

Ron and Yori sat before Kim's old locker computer. Yori had on a short, white robe with red trim. Kim would have had a problem with it if she didn't know it was formal dress, and what other reason would Ron have to spend a half hour trying to get his hakama to stay up let alone the dark blue monk's robes. Kim remained dressed as she was this afternoon and paced off screen, fuming.

The man they were talking to had different color robes to denote his higher rank. He sat behind a large, wooden desk that made him look very austere and righteous, yet authoritative and commanding. Beside him stood a thin blonde teen that looked like the librarian in a pornographic movie just before she lets her hair down, takes off her glasses and turns that hateful scowl into X-rated 'fun'. From what Kim could follow of the conversation, entirely in Japanese, there was going to be no fun.

"And so, Contracted Monk Stoppable, you see that there was no other possibility given that situation.", Takamine continued. "Yori acted completely in the interests of the civilians you were with. She probably saved their lives and certainly the lives of many other children on other continents by finally putting a stop to the supernatural weapons designer. Even the support of an invalid, pardon-I should use a more American term, handicapped cannot overshadow the cost of so many innocent lives.

"It is unfortunate that I have to be the deliver to you the news of the full report of that monsters damage. Be thankful that your friend has managed to not be contaminated by the corrupted corpse and can begin his university studies without its influence."

Ron nodded. "But how can I tell him that his mother was risen dead for most of his life? And that we were somehow right to end her life...animation? Even when I don't know for sure that's true?"

Takamine nodded. "Often we have doubts, regrets on the path of rigtheousness. It is what makes us human. The folly is in letting a single regret grow in our hearts until it consumes us and rules our actions instead of ourselves. Your shikabane hime is proof of that. Trust in your own judgement, Stoppable-san. We do."

The glowering girl behind the Japanese man spoke. "Permission to speak, sir?"

The man considered, the nodded. "Go ahead."

"Shikabane Hime Yori Yamanouchi-sama.", the girl addressed respectfully. "Congradulations on your first kil....on your first. It may be the earliest for any of us. I wish you continued success."

Yori nodded. "Master Stoppable, may I reply?"

Ron looked confused and gestured toward the screen. "I think electronic devices still detect you despite..."

"Thank you, Master Stoppable. Tokoroki-sama: Thank you for your well wishes."

"Hai."

Takamine canceled his skype session and the screen went dark.

Kim still glared at the two. Ron got up to calm her.

"Don't you dare, Ron.", Kim warned. "She killed Felix' mom."

Yori countered immediately. "I ended her restless walk and saved people. Is this not what you do, Possible-sama?"

"I don't kill!", Kim screeched.

"I apologize, Possible-sama. You just struck me as someone who had made the decision to kill before."

Flashback

The only thing keeping Kim's hair from gluing to her neck with rain was a storm force wind. The plan was foiled. Any other night, she would have already packed up and gone home. And it wasn't the experimental battle suit edging her on.

Shego turned and spotted her.

"You know what I hate?", the girl asked her arch nemesis for the last time.

"That your date melted.", Shego facetiously answered.

The shake of her head was nearly undetectable as she moved into position to line this up. "No.", Kim corrected. "You."

And she kicked with all of the suit's might. It should have shattered ribs. Shego went flying and broke the antannae tower's stone strength. Shego's body writhed in electric agony until the stone and metal tower collapsed on her.

And Kim smiled.

11

"Shut up.", Kim told Yori. "And how could you start your murder with Felix' mom?"

"If you want me Master Stoppable to point me at other targets, you will find them and inform him. Will you not?", Yori countered.

Ron turned to Yori and guided her out of the room. "I'll calm her down, KP. See you tomorrow?"

"If you survive."


	3. 2 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Kim meandered downstairs just in time for dinner. Even as she was walking in the room, the twins sped by her in their typical 'at the table by the bell despite just jury-rigging a computer axial tomography scanner' attitude. She sat down crest-fallen next to her father.

James Possible looked up and then noticed. "Kimmie-cub, where's your mother?"

Just then, Anne rushed in. She took a physical head count of her children by ruffling their heads. The brain surgeon ended her rush with her arms around her husband and relaxed visibly.

"Hello to you to, dear.", Mr. Dr. Possible declared as he akwardly returned her embrace from his sitting position.

"James.", his wife started. "James...there's been an accident. An industrial accident. Dr. Renton's deceased."

He disagreed. "She didn't even come into work today."

Anne nodded. "She was found in her home. Apparently, she had her own lab there. Something went wrong with a 'tentacle propulsion system'. It...it was rather gruesome."

Her children remained silent. James frowned and slapped the table. "Darnit, I told her not to work alone. Not to sound immodest, but even I have a lab partner. And this tentacle propulsion that she was working on was supposed to be revolutionary, like Heaphastus project revolutionary. The mechanics were simple enough but neither Viv or I could make head or tail of her driver code."

Mrs. Dr. Possible showed she was indeed her daughter's mother. "What do you mean, 'Viv'?"

James rolled his eyes. "Not this again. Dear, it's a name. Dr. Vivian Porter's name. She works with me when one of hers needs a ride, that's it."

"Who's going to break the news to Felix?", Kim asked. She still stared at her empty plate.

Her mother appeared even more distraught. "Turns out, his girl friend found the bod...remains. Felix calmed her down and called it in. That's how we knew what it was she was working on down at the hospital.

"Felix is staying with Ms. Flores' parents, for right now. But he's eighteen...I mean, turns out he's executor of the estate and is going to be making the arrangements himself. It's...No, it is not a good thing. But at least he doesn't have to get thrown between foster homes. He's been with the chair for some time and he's already accepted to college...so, he can go back home whenever he wants.

"Just try to be a good friend, Kimmie. He's gonna need it."

Kim nodded. "May I be excused? There's something I need to do. Please and thank you."

And with that she walked back to her bedroom with a steady gate.

2

Kim arrived at Ron's house with a purpose the next morning. Again, no one answered the door bell. Only this time, Kim heard the sounds of a fight. The girl peaked in the first floor window and saw nothing, then flipped to a second floor window and found no more. Vaulting onto the roof, Kim raced to the other side of the house.

Standing on the roof, she could see the cause of the commotion. Yori was dragging a chain with a sharpened, grappling hook through the space Ron had just occupied. Ron spun away from the chain and swiped the Lotus Blade in its default form through the space that had been between the corpse' shoulders and head. Yori ducked under and scorpion kicked at the space that Ron's face had been. Ron grabbed the offered ankle and whipped the monster's body over him, bouncing the Skikabane against the tree she slept in.

Kim finally felt familiarity since all this started. Ron getting involved with something that blew up to mission status. Leaping from an incredible height to keep another whacked out villain from killing him. At last.

Which puzzled her to no end when Ron didn't allow her to land between the two. Ron spun to Yori faster that the earth could pull Kim to its surface. Continuing his spin, the Lotus Blade manifested as a frying pan to slap the girl's chain around the tree,holding her there. The blade reconfigured to its original form, with Ron pointing it at Yori's forehead.

The ninja sighed and nodded. "I concede, Master Stoppable."

"Ah...booyah!", Ron exhaled. The Lotus Blade disappeared and a small crystal blue ring appeared on his hand.

"Oh man, I am beat.", he continued while nearly collapsing toward Kim. "Yori spars like I was a steak being tenderized for dinner."

"It is your honor to practice your utmost, Stoppable-san.", Yori contributed.

Kim's confused gaze darted between the two. "You mean you aren't fighting?"

Now it was the other two's turn to be baffled. Yori started. "You know that I am bonded to Stoppable-san. I doubt I could even attempt to fight him, though I do not truly know as I have never chosen to do so."

Ron concurred. "Yeah, we're just practicing. I didn't even realize how out of shape I was with the missions and football."

"Out of shape?", Kim asked of the only man she currently felt attracted to. "Alright! What?"

"KP.", Ron said very carefully. "Yori practiced with me, that's all. There's a difference between star running back and adept ninja...back? Everything's fine.

"Now. Good morning.", Ron said and kissed her lightly.

"Okay.", Kim said a bit more cheerfully. "I came to pick you up because I followed Yori's corpse' advice. Our friend's mom that it murdered has been ruled 'accidental'. But we don't need a repeat. So I contacted the only person I know that's fought more crazy villains than we have. That way, maybe we can track down some actual monsters that everyone can agree on. So hurry up and get ready to go."

"Sure, whatever you say.", Ron said. "But Hanna's in the house with mom and she always flips out when I try to bring Yori in. Do you mind if we shower at your place?"

Kim glared at him , then Yori. Yori actually managed to seem smaller when she performed the puppy dog pout. Kim gritted her teeth, "Fine."

3

The three stood in Kim's attached bathroom.

Yori regarded the sheepish looks the other two gave each other. "Relax, Possible-sama. There is no reason for you to be uncomfortable. You are with Stoppable-san, are you not? Does he not relax you?"

She guided the two into a kiss. "Take comfort in each other."

When they broke apart, Yori had taken off her gi and hakama. The corpse unwound her chest's wrappings and continued to speak to them. "You are lucky enough to have someone to share your life with. To have a life to share."

A completely naked girl stood in front of Kim and rubbed her arm. "Never forget that."

She then turned and faced the shower that Ron was running the water for. The corpse took a deep breath that wouldn't oxygenate a single cell. Ron placed a broad hand on her back and guided her in. "Calm down.", Ron reminded. "It's a shower, not the nasty b-word."

Yori stepped into the steaming water and shivered.

"KP, wash cloth?", Ron asked. As soon as he felt it in his hand, the boy was at work. He wore his 'serious face' intensely. His gi immediately soaked in the shower.

Kim saw this and sighed. "Ron, lose the shirt? It must weigh thirty pounds by now."

"And have you watch me strip in the shower with Yori? Momma didn't raise no suicides.", Ron told her. "Oh, uh...no offense?"

Yori nearly let a smile touch her lips. "You and your American-style politeness, Stoppable-san. Besides, she does not ask for your benefit or mine."

Ron's hand snaked up to the back of his neck. "Oh." The boy then backed out of the shower and let the wet gi slide off, leaving him only in the much thinner hakama and habi.

Yori called out, "I am not being scrubbed, Master." The shudder in her voice let them know that the need was indeed dire.

Ron dove back in. His face softened immensely when Kim appeared in the shower in only her bra, holding a wash cloth. "I thought it might go faster if I helped. If I'm intruding..."

Yori gave a quick shake of her head. "By all means, Possible-sama. But I must beg you:be rough with me. I hold no desire to perform this again before it is needed."

Kim nodded and began to wash her even as her red hair drenched. The girl gasped, but went ahead. "I'm sorry. I just thought you'd be cold. You know, to the touch."

Yori pulled Kim's free hand to her breast. "It is the water that warms me, I no longer have a fire to call my own. But to alay your fears, I am still quite soft."

Kim nodded. Then she shook herself. The girl started helping her boyfriend wash Yori in earnest. Too soon the girl was clean and the two were drenched.

As Kim turned off the water, she took stock of Ron. Yori stage whispered in her ear, "Please remember that Stoppable-san still requires his cleansing. It was his honor to get quite dirty. Perhaps you can help him as well as I?"

The girl found herself agreeing with the suggestion as the shikabane released the hooks on her bra. Ron stared dumbfounded as Yori slipped the garment off into the tub. Kim was guided into the shower, making very little space between Ron and herself, as Yori continued with the buckle to her pants. "We would not want these to get wet either, would we?", Yori explained.

Soon, Kim found herself bare as Yori and not caring one whit in the world about it.

Yori stepped away, but kept the breathy tone of voice. "I will dress in your room as you...take care of Master Stoppable."

4

Yori sauntered down to the first floor, letting her shower's warmth gain strength. Due to her new state, she wasn't exactly surprised by Mrs. Dr. Possible.

"Hello, Yori.", the adult began. "Where are Ron and Kim?"

Yori smiled at the woman. "You wanted to examine me more closely, did you not, Dr. Possible-sama?"

The brain-surgeon lit up like a kid at Christmas. "You know, the boys have built a CAT scanner. Don't worry, I know it's safe because they left me an e-mail saying they left a base case file from scanning Kim. And don't worry, when they get back they're going to be grounded for some time for CAT scanning their sister in her sleep. I don't want to get to mad at them though, because once I figure out how they managed to do it, I'm going to probably be mad enough to punish them all over again."

The two walked into the garage. Where the Sloth once sat defunct was a weight bench with a robotic arm supporting a large box hanging over it. Dr. Possible sat at what must have been the controls to the device. "Lay down on the bench, Yori.", she instructed. "The machine will have to pass over you a lot to build an image. So just relax, alright?"

"I am more than relaxed.", Yori said lazily. The corpse laid on the bench and languidly took hold of the bar supports on either side.

As the scan went on, Yori seemed to grow more tense. Anne didn't think it was a bad sign as the girl kept her grin. "Are you alright, Yori? I would hate to think the boys had the voltage to high and you were being affected by the scanner."

"Please do not worry, doctor. I was told I regenerate.", Yori informed.

"Really?" Anne turned away from the controls and nearly got up before she collected herself. "That's fascinating. But back to the matter at hand:try to relax and not move, okay?"

Yori conceded through nearly gritted teeth. "I will try to hold on as long as possible." The girl grasped the bar supports in a tighter hold and planted her feet spread apart. "Is this acceptable?", she grunted.

"Just a minute more.", was the response. Anne knew what she thought she was seeing from the girls 'symptoms'. But there was no cause. There was no stimulus besides the machine. And she could think of no reason for such a response. Then again, she could think of no reason why the frankly dead girl seemed not to be encumbered by her state, let alone any alleged enhancement over her abilities in life. The neurosurgeon could scarcely bare the wait for the compiled image of the corpse' brain.

The machine let out a tone signaling that its scan was complete. The individual images were constructed into a three-dimensional model and displayed as a hologram above the controls. "You actually don't have any blood activity in your brain.", Dr. Possible declared. "It's flooded like normal and everything looks intact if a little oxygen depleted. You're not....were not anemic or hemophilic, right?"

Yori lay shuddering on the work bench. After a moment, she turned a goofy smile to a half confused, half disturbed Dr. Possible. "It will be my honor to inform you that I had no health problems in life.", she giggled.

5

"Here we are, Go City.", Kim announced. The teens paid no attention to the man yelling at them. His rage over being cut off from a parking space by the Sloth descending into it was wasted.

"Good thinking, KP.", Ron complimented. "If we're on a long flight, frequent Naco stops are a must. And after some talks with the post-Drakken owners of Bueno Nacho (and a few complicated looking graphs Wade told me to show them), it's finally on the menu in Go City!"

Rufus readily agreed.

"We're not going to the Mucho Grande Bueno Nacho to eat.", Kim scolded.

"But we are going there.", Ron confirmed. "And I still have a mouth, stomach and needed appendages for total snackage domination. Check list seems strangely complete."

"We're going to meet with Hector!"

"Why? Is he hungry, too?", Ron innocently replied.

Yori giggled. "Your American-style single mindedness amuses, Stoppable-san. I believe what your consort means is that this city is our destination. She intends the Bueno Nacho to be the contact point for the person who is supposed to aid us in finding...unconnected and more dangerous Shikabane for our contract."

"Aw man!", Ron lamented.

The trio walked into the restaurant. Ron's eyes lit up. "Head in the game, Ron!"

"I bet Hector's head isn't in the game.", Ron said under his breath.

Kim ignored it. "Let's split up and find him. Yori, Hector's very large with dark hair. You can't miss him."

Yori nodded and kept with a dozen meters of Ron as Kim walked off. The shikabane listened in on every conversation on the vending floor and the dining balcony for any hint someone might be this 'Hector'. Then she noticed a manager fitting the description. As she came closer, she saw the name tag did indeed declare "Hector". Yori started toward him in earnest and noticed something else.

Hego's private identity watched the pretty Asian girl eye him, then come closer. She appeared college-age...no younger than high school grad. If she wanted something to do with Bueno Nacho, his cover would demand it. If she actually intended to flirt with him...well, a girl friend would make his private identity more believable.

Yori pulled a red fan from her shirt. It was obviously American made, pseudo-Asian 'inspired' which allowed her to conceal a fan in it. She did a bad job of appearing casual while fanning herself so 'Hector' would be down wind.

"Is there something I can help you with, ma'am?", Hector asked.

Yori smirked at him. "I apologize. My perfume distracted you. It's from a rare flower from my homeland. I've come here to go to school and I don't have _any_ friends."

The man frowned. "I didn't smell any perfume."

The girl appeared distraught but covering it. "Are you sure? Breathe deeply."

The large chest puffed up, then exhaled. "Sorry, nothing."

Yori nodded to herself then frowned. "Try now.", she instructed while holding her fan to Hector's face.

Once she blocked his view, she threw a hard punch behind it. Hidden, Yori intended it to take the top of the shikabane's skull in one blow. Instead, it connected with the Salsa Parade's counter-top ripped from it's moorings. Surprisingly, a glowing blue fist had no trouble driving a hole straight through the metal at her face.

Yori recovered fast and dodged back a step to avoid the blow. That single step brought Go City's most famous (current) superhero, Hego, into view. There was no time for her to reason out why an obsessed corpse would pretend such a role. She could only spin with the next glowing blue punch and use its momentum to toss Hego through the windows and into the street.

6

"Where'd Yori go?", Ron asked aloud. He felt a pang of curiosity but it vanished.

Just as he was about to brush it off, Hego went flying past him. Then Yori went sprinting past him. On the street, Hego stopped his movement when his body bent a street light to a half of its height. Yori tackled the upside down superhero into traffic. She barely rolled free before a minivan fired air bags at its passengers because it crumpled on Hego's blue glow.

"KIM!", Ron yelled at the top of his lungs.

Hego shoved the vehicle away and stood in the middle of stopped traffic. Yori had already replaced her fan in hand with a chain attached to a grapple. Her left hand held a fist of wound chain and a link from after the chain traveled around her body. From that link, the chain came to her right then dangled into the hook.

Yori screamed and whipped the chain in a circle down toward the crown of Hego's head. Hego ducked back and then jerk backed as Yori kicked the hook back up at him. Yori spun into the space under the chain and whipped the chain down, away from Hego and around her to his left. Hego held out a blue glowing hand to catch it but missed it greatly as the chain wrapped around his leg. Yori pulled the monster up into the air and over her, slamming his head into the asphalt street.

Hego rolled out of the chain's grip. The large man ripped a piece of the street away and flung the sheet of manufactured rock like a frisbee at the girl. He slammed the ground to propel himself upward, preparing to pound his fists through his opponent when she vaulted over the stone.

Yori instead stepped onto the asphalt. It sailed passed her and cut through a street light's pole like Sherlock Holmes through a mystery. The chunk did send the girl spinning with its contact, lending some of Hego's strength to her flying roundhouse to his head. Hego cartwheeled in mid-air before hitting the ground again.

Hego pushed away from the direction he had fallen in, narrowly missing the hook penetrating his skull like it did the street in front of him. The hook pulled loose a plate of asphalt and splashed it against his face. Hego grabbed two handfuls of the broken stone, turned and shoved.

Yori spun the chain in front of her, intercepting most of the shrapenal. She ignored the cut a piece put on her arm and continued whirling the chain, wrapping it around the charging Hego's arms. Hego didn't stop in the slightest with his arms tied and just slammed into her like a bull into a rodeo clown's barrel. Yori was sent flying and slammed into one of the cars stopped by the fight. Hego used his blue glow to pop the chains around his arms into a cloud of floating metal shards.

Yori noticed the window in the car door she had collided with didn't shatter into safety bits, but fractured. She yanked the largest piece free and hurled it slightly to Hego's right. Hego dodged left and the convex glass curved in mid air to collide dead center where his face had moved. The superhero wobbled, but none-the-less pulled the glass free from the inches it had been forced into his head. Unfortunately, Yori leaped into the space his downward traveling arms had created and jammed her small, girlish fingers into the crevasse. The shikabane hime tore free a non-trivial amount of bone and jumped away by kicking in Hego's brain.

The blue glow tried to stand against the force the ninja's foot applied, but Hego went down. Yori rushed up and stomped and stomped. Shortly, the blue glow was replaced by red splatter and then disappeared altogether.

Kim Possible hand sprung over a parked car while Ron Stoppable weaved through people and cars. The high school dream lived on the football field gave them the skills to drag them into this undead nightmare. The inanimate corpse of Go City's prized superhero lay at their feet before them. Yori acknowledged the moment only with, "Target silenced, Master Stoppable."

"It is now our honor to retreat back to the shadows."


	4. 3 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

"I can't believe you!", Kim screeched. Despite running to this roof top through the back alleys of Go City, none of the teens seemed out of breath. Kim certainly had enough left to storm at Yori. Ron tried to throw his attention everywhere at once. Yori appeared dangerously reserved.

Kim continued on. "How dare you murder Hego? Are you that blood thirsty? Is "shikabane hime" Japanese for frenzied beast?"

Yori's face could be said to refuse to glare at Kim, no matter how much the smoky eyes stared. "I do not understand. Is this some form of American-styled gratitude and we are having a cultural-division issue?"

Ron and Kim both gave looks of confusion to the ninja.

The corpse continued. "You know for fact that I will only get to heaven upon putting to rest one-hundred and eight restless dead, completing my penance for my own state. You then ask me to turn my attentions to those that are not around you. So I comply. After a rather pleasant morning, you fly me and my contracted monk to a far away town and present me with one. Now you berate me for ending it.

"It will be your honor to explain."

Kim walked right up to Yori. "You just murdered one of the superheroes of the world in front of the people he protected."

"Hero that is 'super'?", Yori asked. "Do you mean it was he who saved the world from the Lowardians? Or perhaps you mean it was he who perservered through his own emotions to stop the Diablo Metal when you were too busy chasing the slave men of the enemy. Was it his great skill as a detective that discovered the cause of world-wide earth quake when the continents reversed their drifts a thousand thousands fold? Because I understood that the person who had saved the world (and you) is known as Master Stoppable.

"The thing I just put down had was a corpse. Shikabane, as you so charmingly asked Possible-sama, is just that. So perhaps you will...what is said, expound upon your reasoning."

Kim drew in a deep breath and began a long explanation. "Hego and his siblings gained superpowers when they were hit by a meteorite."

Yori cut the entire explanation off. "So you realized that he had died, come back and inflicted a curse upon others?"

"No!", Kim countered. "He helped people!"

"So he didn't use his curse to rob and destroy, torture, main and kill?", Yori asked.

"He was Attitudinated at the time.", Kim said.

"He at least kept the rest of his family intact?", Yori continued.

"They all split up after a while.", Kim admitted.

"But you grew up watching his behavior. It inspired you to actually help people?", Yori offered.

Kim grimaced. "Actually, the first time I met him was after I started taking missions. And I ended up helping him with Aviarius...and Electronique...and the Mathter...

"But that's not the point!"

The other narrowed her eyes. "What is the point?"

Kim pointed in her face. "That's it. Ron, we're taking this _thing_ back to Sensei. Either she gets a stronger leash or I'm putting one on her. Even if I have to hand her over to Global Justice to do it."

"Can we just calm down a bit?", Ron hesitantly hoped. He actually ducked under the two intense glares and patted his hair to make sure it wasn't set ablaze.

"Look, I feel horrible about Hego. I think Yori jumped the gun, too. But handing proof of life after death over to GJ is big, really big.

"So let's go to Sensei. Let's see what he says. Maybe he has some advice and can see something that we're missing."

Ron then turned to Yori. "Is that okay, Yori? Can we talk this out with Sensei?"

"Since when does it get a vote?", Kim spat.

"I concur.", Yori agreed.

"That's not nice, Kim.", Ron said. "But thank you, Yori."

The corpse shook her head. "I miscommunicated. I concur with the sentiment that I should not make this decision. You should. I am your bound Shikabane, Master Stoppable. If you feel that there is a course of action to follow, I will not hesitate."

Kim still had a sour look. "Just get in the car."

She touched a button on the screen of her wrist Kimmunicator and the Sloth descended to the rooftop. "Ron, you're riding in the back. I want to keep my eyes on her the whole way to Yaumanouchi."

2

The Sloth descended into the courtyard of Yamanouchi. Hirotaka greeted the trio. "Master Stoppable, Yori-chan, Ms. Possible."

Ron had no time for small talk. "I'm talking with Master Sensei. Keep Kim comfortable. Note: serious face."

With that Ron held Yori by the wrist and stormed away.

Kim was aghast. "What do you mean 'keep me comfortable'?"

At first step, Hirotaka was in front of her. "May I show you the way to our hot springs, so that you may relax while you await Stoppable-san's return? Or the hard-style dojo so that you may, how do you say...'stretch your legs', after your flight?"

Kim spun to only face Hirotaka again. Kim lept an enormous height intent on clearing him, but was only matched yard for meter. Kim gritted her teeth while Hirotaka politely continued. "Stoppable-san had asked me to not his serious face. Our midday meal will begin shortly, perhaps you would like me to accompany you?"

3

Ron stepped into the shrine of the temple. He let Yori go to set the heavy wooden plank that served as the door in place. When he turned he saw Yori taking a lotus position between Master Sensei and himself.

Master Sensei faced away from him. Ron could tell the three trails of smoke from incense as Sensei bowed between prayers. The wall he bowed toward half annoyed, half awed the boy. Wall scrolls depicted a fierce samurai, a gentle african tribe leader and the canti for 'monkey' and 'Buhhda' in Japanese. Below all of these was a simple photograph in an elegant golden frame: a picture of Ron, taken by Yori ("for our yearbook, Stoppable-san") during his first time at the school.

Master Sensei spoke without turning around. "I should have expected the Monkey Master to have learned the truth by now. I am prepared for my fate, Master Stoppable."

Ron raised an eyebrow in surprise. Sensei still sat on his knees turned away from him. Yori kept her position quietly but with a fiercely held stiff upper lip. "Uh, you wanna explain that? In case Yori hasn't caught on to the truth yet?"

"Very well, Master Stoppable.", Master Sensei started, turning to him to convey his sincerity. "A few generations after the previous Monkey Master's work was done, I was born. So long ago, the clan name 'Sensei' rather than 'sifu' is now used for 'teacher'. I was raised on tales of the Ultimate Monkey Master being reborn into the world and fulfilling the promise of the ancestors. All my life, I trained and prepared for that day: even constructing and using the Golden Banana in my youth to declare your coming. I poured a lifetime of effort into your arrival. Eventually, I died of old age."

Master Sensei's bubble burst into a glowing existence around him. "But all was not for naught. My faith served me as a shield, carried me as a wind does the feather and allowed me to imprint signs of you across the world. My desire to meet you, guide you, aid you in whatever way I could drove me to push on. If mere death could stop one of your true disciples, what of others? I am certain Yori will agree with me in that. I continued on preparing for lifetimes others never had. At first, it game me a feeling of unique blessing. It was some time before I discovered that there was a term for what my obsession made me."

"Shikabane.", Ron uttered.

"Hai.", the old man's corpse confirmed. "Since my 'return' I have led a life of single devotion. Preparing for your coming."

"First, I knew doing so would be a herculean task. So I bent the Yamanouchi clan's dojo away from protecting the other noble professions from the excesses of oppressive samurai. I turned it to this cult you see before you. Outliving the other leadership was easy enough since I had already died. Building our numbers was a simple task of taking the right children - orphans stolen from charity centers, the offspring of great houses burned to the ground by those students, any one of true promise taken from the street by those students. Now the Yamanouchi Adoption Agency is embedded in nearly every country in the world, allowing for any placement we like; even the placement of Hanna into your home. The recursive cycle of indoctrination creating those willing to acquire more to serve my will, your benefit, left only one flaw.

"A number. Yes, growing the innocent to become shadow warriors to serve on your behest with their very lives was of incalculable value. But if they survived into old age, even the most devoted student may dare to approach me on my continued existence.

"So secondly, I had to keep getting rid of them. Training them inadequately would defeat the purpose: do not doubt that any of my students excel at what they believe they excel at. No, I had to make sure that they kept meeting their ends in situations even the most silent, agile, deadly servant would not escape. The occupation of assassination again became the lifeblood of our school...but only the most dangerous and improbable attempts. (I suppose it is a credit to my ability to 'recruit' only the most talented that any survive more than a few such tasks.) I spent centuries commanding the students to journey to the far reaches of the world to hide the artifacts of Mystical Monkey Power behind arrays of hidden traps, arcane magics and bizzare puzzles. Many lives were lost in their construction but more importantly, it gave ample opportunity for careful laid 'construction mishaps' to unfold. Any who were suspected of learning my secret or the desire to walk some other path were destroyed by the spiritual siblings I turned against them.

"And here I am, well rewarded. I sit before Buhhda Ronald Stoppable. A wondrous spirit of life and love, charity and heroism."

Yori allowed herself a single breath at the revelation. Ron had sank to the floor under the weight of what had been done in his name.

"You can't be.", Ron stated. "You rolled up on the Kougon sect! They would have destroyed you if they knew what you were."

"Oh dear.", Sensei noted. "The Kougon sect not detecting that one of the dead was in their midst. That would require the pinnacle of skill in the arts of deception and misdirection. Perhaps some kind of legendary ninja?"

Ron face palmed.

Kindly old eyes sought to ease his suffering. "I have but one last gift for you, Master Stoppable. Solace.

"I deserve to be taken from this world. I have inflicted grievous and undue tortures upon generations who were merely unlucky enough to be born into my clutches. There is no possible redemption for me. Not only is there no penance I could possibly repay those that have fallen before me, there is no desire to do so. The same passion that allowed me to rise again drives me now. I will tell you, eye to eye, that I would inflict all my pains again had I have the time to do it all over again. I only want to serve you and I see nothing of ten-thousand other things.

"I offer you my head, my brain. My demise on the altar of the Ultimate Monkey Master, clear of conscience, is my prize.

"My only 'last request' is still in service to you. Remember well that the other shikabane, whether they pretend to be priests or mothers or physicians or heroes are all one thing: inflicting their passions and curses upon the world. Offer us no mercy as we cannot offer any to the world. Any other path than our regret gives us no temptation."

Ron stood up with a stomp. His entire face was screwed into a scowl of disgust, remorse and guilt. The boy stomped back to the door to the room and threw it aside with one hand.

"Yori.", Ron ordered. "Destroy Master Sensei."

The two corpses bowed their heads to the floor. In unison they responded, "It will be our honor, Master Stoppable."

Yori rose again, walking to the doorway.

Sensei kept his head to the ground. "Booyah, Buhhda Stoppable."

Ron shook his head. "Not today."

The boy left. Yori replaced the door plank, separating the room from the outside world.

2

Kim stood with crossed arms, glaring at Hirotaka. Hirotaka retained his polite stance.

As Ron walked toward Kim, she pointed her finger to start her rant. Ron let the arm slide over his shoulder and collapsed into a desperate embrace against her. He held onto her as if he was afraid of losing himself.

Kim felt the anger wafting away from her. "Ron, what's wrong?", she asked with concern.

Ron didn't change position at all to reply. Talking as if he wasn't face deep in her hair, he asked Hirotaka. "Random ninja of Yamanouchi. Could you please tell KP what your earliest memory is?"

"Of course, Master Stoppable.", Hirotaka agreed. "It was a lesson by Master Sensei himself. I was maybe two or three years of age. Yori and Fukushima and the rest of us were stripped and prostrated. He manipulated our chi points with acupuncture and finger strikes to a height of pain that still screams in my nightmares.

"I will always be thankful to him for that. He showed us what was possible to endure when powerless and defenseless for no reason at all. It inspires me daily to show that I can endure ever so much more in service to the Ultimate Monkey Master. There is nothing that will keep HIM from fulfilling the promise of the ancestors as long as I can endure."

Kim's mouth gaped open to Ron's shoulder. Ron clutched her tighter. "Yori is murdering Master Sensei right now."

Dozens of ninja appeared from behind bushes, out of the trees, away from walls they had blended into and in a spectacular instance from thin air itself.

"I ordered her to do so.", Ron continued. The ninja paused, then immediately disappeared with barely a whisper on the wind.

"He was shikabane. Everyone here was kidnapped and tortured to worship me with a passion so fierce Yori killed herself because of some imagined failing and rose from the dead to make up for it. He rejoiced in his ability to serve me one last time by finally being destroyed on my word.

"These things need to be put out of order, pronto. If I find one, I'm having Yori put it down. Once she's in heaven...maybe I can come back here and help these people to live something of a normal life.

"I'm sorry, KP."

"Oh, Ron.", Kim lamented. She began to speak. Nothing she could think of could make any of this better. She instead pressed her parted lips on Ron's tears. She returned the hug as hard as she could.

Yori walked up to them. She waited patiently until Kim could untangle Ron. Ron met Yori with bleary eyes.

Once she had the boy's attention, Yori reported. "Target silenced, Master Stoppable. I have destroyed the man who raised me from an infant and taught me to serve you. He offered me three choices: his seppuku on your word, my slaying him and a fight to the death. The fight to the death would have foretold my strength and instilled fear in any other shikabane who learned of it, as Master Sensei was more than a formidable opponent. But as is the way of the ninja, I took the easiest route that ensured victory and lobotomized him myself. The shikabane's brain lies in mush over the shrine floor."

"I'm sorry, Yori.", Kim empathized.

"You seem to be of many minds, Possible-sama.", Yori replied tartly.

Kim's face added questioning to her remorse.

Yori leveled her gaze at the living girl. "When I slay an obsessed monster that I have never met before, with a great deal of effort and danger, you condemn me. When I murder my own master with ease you forgive easily. I am called a threat to your relationship with Stoppable-san when I take the utmost care not to be. I am then redecorated by your friends in this belt called a skirt at your behest. I endure it all to accommodate you and in return, I receive unpredictable reactions."

Kim's face fell. "You must think I'm horrible."

Yori's lips moved to speak, but that brought Ron back into her sight. Seeing Ron hang onto Kim for support, Yori told her, "No. Stoppable-san loves you. He loves everything about you. That is more than enough to hold you in high esteem.

"But I must ask. I apologize profusely if my language is coarse. But I must know. If my suicide has not condemned me through karma, my abandoning my dharma with Sensei-san's murder has. My only hope for redemption is by aiding Master Stoppable in saving the world from as many of these monsters as possible. Are you going to continue to hinder my efforts by pretending that we're people? Or are you going to understand that your dharma of saving the world lies in parallel with our new path?"

Kim nodded. Then she pulled Yori in for a hug. The corpse' arms hung tensely at her sides.

"I'm sorry.", the living girl told her. "These shikabane can't go on any longer. I'll support your quest."

Then the redhead jumped in realization. "In fact, I know exactly where to find our next target."

Ron looked at Kim with concern. She continued on with orders. "Mission clothes, Ron. And I'm gonna have to get Wade to give us a lead."

Ron nodded slowly.

Yori turned to Hirotaka. "We will need a room for changing. I apologize for leaving the shrine to the Monkey Masters in disarray. But I have a _special_ favor to ask, Hirotaka-kun. Will you bring me my special red kimono? I would like to take it back to America with me."

Hirotaka nodded. "I fully understand, Yori-chan. I am sorry I cannot do more."

Yori offered him a small smile. "We serve the Ultimate Monkey Master. No one can do more."

"Which means you still follow your dharma, Yori-chan.", Hirotaka countered.


	5. Not 4 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Two men looked up at a bank of screens displaying specifications of all Drakken's technical achievements over the course of his career.

"So, the hover drive's licensing went to the Germans while the power core went to the Japanese, the hydrogen production to the Icelanders and the fab work to the Americans via Me-hi-co.", Dr. Drakken continued. "What of the laser guided plasma inducers?"

Hank Perkins replied. "We're playing the E.U. off the U.S. but entertaining a number of offers from other Security Council members."

"Oh, Shego.", Dr. Drakken waxed. "Who knew a world wide pardon would be so very profitable? If I knew going straight was going to bring so much glorious money, I wouldn't have tried to strip the planet's atmosphere."

Hank worried aloud. "Don't we need that to breathe?"

"It's in the past, so don't press yourself.", Drakken told him.

Shego just shook her head and raised her talons to the sky. "You always make money on your legitimate fronts! The Bueno Nacho take over. Hank's Gourmet Cupcakes. Even that stupid ice cream truck sold out."

"You shouldn't glower like that.", the evil consultant warned. "Sales will decline if our 'ex'-mercenary turned Sales Luminary of Ultimate Technology (or S.L.U.T., as one might say) gets frown lines."

"Are you going to let him talk to your girlfriend like that?", Shego asked.

Drakken waved his hand back and forth as if weighing the options in his mind. "An outside consultant has to tell us unpleasant things at times or he couldn't do his job. I'd let Chef Ramsey call me a donkey if it meant returning my restaurant to high standards, after all."

"That's it. I'm done.", Shego said.

As she walked out of the room, the blue-skinned man grimaced. "Nnngh...", he gritted out while pointing to his cheek.

Shego rolled her eyes. The woman jumped to him and crossed him across his jaw.

"Gagh! Shego!", Dr. Drakken stammered. "I meant that girl friends kiss their boyfriends good-bye, not knock them into next week."

"Consider it a love tap, Dr. D.", Shego said as she walked away.

The now actually mad (as in quite angry indeed) scientist rubbed his cheek and glared at Perkins. "When we were unrequited she used to share the love. Now she's 'faithful'. Nnmgh."

Shego sauntered down the hallway to the main cavern of the lair. Now that the world had seen fit to overlook nearly a decade of criminal cavorting because of a single thwarted alien invasion, she could actually relax. No more reading magazines and newspapers just to see if some reporter had managed to find Dr. D and herself. No more checking over her shoulder for thirteen...no, make that fourteen countries' military. (the fourteen made her smile) Heck, even that Global Justice...Doo, Du, Dude just smiled a diplomat's smile when they were at a victory celebration at the French embassy in Turkey.

Shego came to a stop on the catwalk overlooking the main cavern. The light from a large skylight showed that below her were vats of mind control shampoo, synthodrone goop; mind swap machines, Hephastus project knockoffs, lasers of untold function-basically anything Dr. D had actually made work. Selling them took someone with the lethal reputation to introduce a weapon, the impeccable skill set to demonstrate it and having a pretty face to distract many of these old generals didn't hurt. She still got to hurt people in demos and did whatever she cared to with her new found wealth. It was the unbridled freedom without moral restraint she always longed for in life.

Well, death. Technically.

If only she could figure out a way to rub that brat Possible's nose in it. Using her un-revoked U.S. passport to show up at her door and start knocking her teeth in would just throw away that whole 'gone legit' vibe that Dr. D. brought in suit-man to cultivate. And she'd still have to hold back to 'merely mortal' levels of strength and speed which threw most of the other fights. (Shego was still surprised no one batted an eye-lid when she survived the antenna tower collapse. Eh, morons, can't live with 'em, haven't killed nearly enough.)

Throwing around money probably wouldn't phase the daughter of a brain surgeon and a rocket scientist. Let alone a girl who started dating a guy _after_ he lost ninety-nine million dollars. And what was she gonna buy that outstripped a souped up roadster that caught a space ship, for crying out loud.

Shego leaned on the railing facing away from the window. The woman pulled out a fingernail file and started to grind down the mineral deposits her curse' plasma always left on her clawed gloves. The woman was started to get a good train of thought going.

Then that very souped up roadster crashed through the skylight. A teen girl flipped from the car onto the catwalk amongst the falling glass while the Sloth continued its rocket slowed descent.

"Oh, thank goodness.", Shego rejoiced. "Kimmie, you should know that breaking and entering a home allows me to kill you without losing my 'going straight' status."

With that Shego threw the nail file at eye level at the girl. The girl jumped into the blade's path, bit it between her teeth and carried the spin into a back kick that was inhumanly powerful.

"I am not Possible-sama, corpse.", Yori warned.

Shego assessed the black-gied ninja before her. "I thought 'three-times the charm' would work on you Kougon hime. Do I need to send four monks back to Japan in pine boxes? Oh, well. At least I get a fight where I can be honest."

Shego lit her hands ablaze with green plasma and grinned with a row of razor sharp fangs. Yori was expressionless as she stabbed the nail file toward Shego's eye. Shego blocked the blow with her right arm. Pulling down with her right hand and pushing up at the elbow with her left, Shego tried to break the shikabane hime's arm. Yori chopped her right elbow with her left forearm, bending it back to a stabbing motion then jabbed Shego with the left elbow. The older monster rolled backwards, pulling the ninja over her by the controlled right arm, ending with Shego mounted on top. Shego's glow encased hand batted at the nail file, disintegrating it immediately.

Yori twisted her right wrist toward the thumb of the hand that held it, finally ending the smoke of scorched flesh that came from it by breaking free of Shego's grasp. Continuing her twist, Yori gained control of Shego's wrist while faking a chop to her face with her left. Instead of connecting with the elder's head, she grabbed the shoulder and pulled Shego down to a position she could reach behind. Grabbing onto her own arm over Shego's, the shikabane hime completed her kimura and intended to wreak havoc on the arm in her hold.

Shego yanked her trapped arm toward their heads, hoping the glow encasing her hand burned away the hold it was in. When that didn't work she pressed face first on Yori, lifting her hips since she was mounting and completely outside the younger's guard. The super villiainess passed her left hand through the gap and was about to burn away at Yori's controlling grasp. Yori pulled Shego over her while kneeing her between the legs to help her passage.

Shego rolled over and turned in surprisingly traditional tiger claw stance: right foot slightly behind and ready to thrust the whole body weight forward, left foot in front and raised to the ball of the foot ready to pounce on any opportunity, left arm looping downward and then up with the right arm looping upward and then down so her claws met in a fierce glow. Yori stood then spun a half turn on her left leg and pounded her right foot into the cat walk. The younger pulled up her left arm as if saving an all important knock out blow in its fist while guarding her entire body with the strength of her right. But instead of keeping the muay thai stance, she rocked it back and softened into a traditional monkey kung-fu stance.

"Since when do you ensorcered school girls actually know how to fight?", Shego sneered.

"Since the blue hokey-pokey took Humpty Dumpty around the Seven-Eleven.", Yori shot back.

As soon as Shego showed the slightest distraction at the nonsense reply, Yori attacked.

2

Dr. Drakken began to block out Hank's buzz word laden corporate speak as his attention was drawn to one of the smaller monitors. The security feeds were still in place to catch industrial espionage agents rather than Possible and...er, what's his name. The one with the hair. R...R..Really unimportant. Anyway. The monitor showed Shego engaged with a young Japanese girl. And not holding back to something 'people' might find 'believable'.

The girl jabbed at Shego who knocked it aside by taking a step back into the southpaw version of her stance. The stance alone was sufficient to ward off the back fist from the other direction. With her opponent no facing away from her, the elder tried to clasp the younger's head between her flaming claws. The girl (who instead of dressing as a school girl like the others of her kind seemed to be dressed nearly as some kind of ninja) ducked away from the attack as if it was expected. Planting her hands on the catwalk, she kicked from her upside down position with both legs into Shego's midsection. The girl thrust her left leg straight up, as if to disguise the uppercut of the right. Shego dodged the kick and shouldered the girl's handstood body. With a large sweeping motion, Shego raked her talons from the girl's shoulders up her back. The girl managed to superhumanly roll with the blow in mid air and continue into a double back kick which sent Shego flying down the length of the catwalk.

Drakken jumped to a microphone and started yelling, despite carefully enunciating every syllable. "Kougon Hime! Kougon Hime! Legions of Terror, this is not a drill. A Kougon Hime is fighting with Shego in the main cavern!"

3

On the cavern floor, Kim Possible stood concerned over her boyfriend in Mission Outfit 2.0. Ron nearly kneeled before her with a dark blue robe wrapped over the Mission Outfit _Original Style_ he wore.

"I'm alright, KP.", the boy shook off. "Just a sudden back twinge."

Then he raised his eyebrows at Dr. Drakken's entrance. The mad scientist wasn't awe inspiring. But the fact he raced in with at least twenty red garbed henchman while synthodrones poured in from another direction and destructo bots rose from the very floor of the cavern floor was.

"Kim Possible!", started Drakken in the surprised way he always greeted her. "You didn't happen to see a Buhhdist-looking priest anywhere? Japanese, blue monk's robe...accompanied by an armed girl about your age or a little younger?"

Ron sheepishly raised his hand.

"The buffoon?", the blue skinned man flabbergasted. "Fine. Legions of Terror: Murder the buffoon. Hurry!"

Kim's jaw dropped but recovered in time to grab at Ron then back flip away from the amassed forces. She didn't carry her boyfriend with her though. Ron had instead stepped forward while the crystal blue ring around his gloved finger vanished and a nearly glowing blue bo staff leaped into existence. The first goon to reach him sprawled out on the floor, seriously concussed. Kim's jaw re-dropped.

"KP, get back in the car!", Ron ordered.

"I am so not leaving you.", Kim replied.

Ron curved his stance forward, holding the bo as a warning to the other enemies. Yori seemed to drop from the sky, sliding down his back into a nearly resting position. "Master Stoppable instructed you to get back in the car.", Yori repeated.

"Fine.", Ron began. "You take care of everything that doesn't have a pulse. I'll deal with the goon squad. But make sure to protect KP."

"Hai.", was Yori's only reply.

Yori pushed herself off Ron to in front of Kim. A synthodrone landed from an impossible leap over Ron. Then the sack that was its head deflated after Yori decapitated it with her fan. The girl kicked the oozing body into the path of the nearest destructo bot, letting it slide uncontrollably toward Ron.

Ron held the Lotus Blade in his left hand while swinging the robot around himself with his right. The henchmen scampered out of the way while Drakken ran away from him. Ron showed he was a star running back as he ran up the hole behind it and whapped henchmen with the staff on either side.

Another destructo bot closed in on Kim. Kim turned toward it but was blocked off by the ninja. The robot took aim with its left arm. Yori wrapped her right arm around its attack dragging it out of line with Kim. Yori swept her right foot around and ended up hip throwing the robot into the spot it had taken aim from. The shikabane put a knee in the destructo bot's 'face' and wrenched most of the arm free of its body. She hurled the arm at another synthodrone, piercing it with the claws. The synthodrone stumbled back, spraying the two girls with gooey streams of its essence. Yori never changed expression as she drove her fist directly into the robots chest. She yanked out the battery, showing it to the still functioning sensors in its head.

The spread out henchmen moved away from Ron and around the fight towards Kim. Activating their rods, blue sparkling fires leapt into being.

"I got your back, KP!", Ron yelled. The boy then pole vaulted over the entire fight with the Lotus Blade's form extended even further. He landed with a solid crack over another henchmen's head. The nearest one to his right was kept from closing the distance when the bottom of Ron's staff stabbed into his left hip socket, dislocating it. The one to his left was kept away when Ron stabbed the staff into his mouth, which left the good stumbling away slapping himself in his attempts to comfort the back of his throat.

On the other side of Kim, Yori round housed kicked the hulking robot sending it into a mid air spin. Catching the machine as if it was broom, she shoved the robot to her left prone with her weapon's head and stomped on the robot to her right with its feet. She dropped the robot to the ground and punted it. The beaten machine flew just above the ground until it collided with another like a speeding car, popping the synthodrone caught in the middle like a water balloon.

Kim marveled at the turn of events. Normally Ron was disturbingly sometimey. The last time she had witnessed Yori in combat was working with a peer. But every time Kim could even think of a target one of the two was already defeating it. The girl tried to punch one of the armored robots and Yori had already blasted it away with a double palm strike to its torso. The living girl tried to turn toward the henchmen and felt Ron's hands on her shoulders, using her as a base so that he could run on their faces. It turned out that Kim Possible could really do anything, including win a wholly lopsided fight without lifting a finger.

"Can I at least try to help?", Kim asked aloud. All the henchmen were either unconscious or clutching broken and dislocated bones. The destructo bots lay in tatters across the cavern floor. The last remaining synthodrone reached for her. Ron's staff knocked its arms behind itself, then stabbed behind the automaton's back to keep the arms from moving forward. Yori grabbed the thing's hands and crushed the fluid out of them and back into its arms rendering them useless. Yori yanked while Ron shoved, dragging the synthodrone to a harmless, restrained, kneeling position in front of Kim.

"Sure.", Ron replied nodding to the helpless sack of goo. "Knock yourself out."

Kim scoffed at Ron.

Yori yanked the thing's hands off and let it bleed out on the floor to a shriveled shell.

Shego had by now climbed down from the catwalk, using her claws to dig into the cavern wall. "Come on Dr. D.!", she yelled while pointing at the entrance he led his forces through.

"She's getting away!", Kim pointed out.

"No, she's not.", Ron countered. He used his staff to flick an injured goon into the opening which Shego leaped back to dodge. When Shego darted toward the exit again, Yori threw an ammunition laid arm at the rock above. Its explosion dropped a slab of granite on Shego, who used her corpse' strength to catch it. Ron flicked an empty synthodrone around her ankles, tripping the shikabane and pounding her with the slab. Yori continued to throw robots into the cavern wall, piling up a crushing amount of debris on Shego.

"Shego!", Dr. Drakken yelled out of concern. Gritting his teeth and gnashing out a cursing whine, he rushed the three teens.

"Really?", Kim asked.

As Dr. Drakken ran, his blue body burst through the mad scientist lab coat he typically wore. A hulking, veined behemoth charged toward them with never seen before strength.

"Really!", Ron screeched in fear.

Drakken screamed in frustration as he grabbed the nearest person he could. That turned out to be Yori. He flung the corpse with undead, transformed, clearly supernatural strength.

Yori barely reacted, only moving her head to spot her landing. Then she let loose a scream akin to a child being raped by a total stranger. The last few feet of her flight were marked by a trail of her tears and pathetic begging for a different fate. Any fate other than this. Please.

The shikabane splashed into a bath of synthodrone goo. The corpse thrashed about panicked but was soon enveloped. It's tortured screams were barely muffled under the harmless substance.

"Yori!", Ron cried. The boy bolted toward the tank.

Drakken took a step back at the reaction. Then he ran back to where Shego was buried. The blue beast started yanking tons of rock from the pile. Shego swatted away the last slab pinning her. Shego took in her boss' cranked out form. "Looking good, Dr. D."

"Zip it, Shego.", he snapped. "Kim Possible, you think you're all that. But you're not even dead!"

Kim didn't even try to pursue his deflating form. The 'bad guys' got away as she turned to Ron.

Ron had run full tilt at the tank. The staff poofed away and a crystal blue saber took its place in the boy's hands. Ron sunk it to the hilt into the wall of the tank Yori was screaming in. Another poof and Ron was cranking a 'jaws of life'. Harmless synthodrone goop sprayed out onto him. Eventually he was able to pull the screaming corpse from the tank.

Kim ran up to help but took a step back at seeing Yori. The normally healthy tan skin tone was drained away as if all her blood was left somewhere. Diagonal slits showed in her gi on the inside of her wrists, and they dripped whatever was left of the missing blood. Scary enough, the corpse' left eye glowed an unholy yellow that cast shadows around the room. Worse were the insane thrashings as the shikabane threw up synthodrone goo and tore at her skin and clothing trying to get the liquid off.

Ron unwrapped his monk's robe and rubbed it over Yori as a towel. Kim didn't take his serious face into account and moved to help restrain the spasming corpse by her head.

As soon as she touched the monster, Kim was in another world. A world filled with choking steam. She felt somehow thinner, colder than the boiling water that surrounded her seemed to allow. But all that was to be ignored. It was the soul crushing depression that Ron would never choose her that tore at her. She missed Ron-kun so very terribly. Why wouldn't Ron love her, even as a concubine. She would certainly serve as a second-wife given the chance. Who was she fooling? She'd whore herself for her heavenly Ron-kun, fight the nightmares of hell for his amusement, writhe on hot coals to warm his slippers. Please, let her serve him, slave for him, something. She begged and cried and her heart won't let her do anything else/

And suddenly Kim was shaking her head. Ron was yelling at her, "KP! Are you okay? KP?"

Kim nodded and waved him off. "Yeah, Ron. I'm fine."

Then she noticed Yori still throwing a fit that left cracks in the stone floor of the cavern. "Yori needs you, Ron-kun. I mean, Ron."

"Are you okay? I need to know you're alright first.", he stated plainly.

"Yes!", Kim told him emphatically. "Now Yori!"

Ron nodded. He spun so fast Kim only saw the blue glow left in his wake. The boy returned to wiping off the liquid from the corpse' thrashing body.

Kim carefully grabbed Yori's wet gi, then allowed the corpse to shake it loose. Yori jerked somewhat less violently now that she was out of the wet garment and Ron's robe was soaked. Kim wrung out the gi and Ron wrung out the robe. They continued to work at drying the girl in front of them and eventually both of her eyes returned to their natural almond shape and color. The ragged gasping disappeared to be replaced with an eerie silence. Yori's motions changed from epileptic fit to waking from a dream. The ninja blinked as if waking up.

Ron gathered the girl in his arms. "It's alright, Yori. It's gonna be alright."

Yori gently clung to his shirt sleeves and sniffled. "If you say so: it must be, Master Stoppable."


	6. The Future?

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

"How was your day, Kimmie-cub?", Mr. Dr. Possible asked.

He was stepping out of his car with the twins at the same moment the goo soaked trio spilled out of the Sloth. Kim supported a dazed looking Yori while Ron held a package of soaked robes tied together with a crystal blue ribbon.

"Some of the most heroic men I've met are returned to the grave while the most dangerous monster I know of stalks the earth.", Kim replied.

Her father chuckled. "In my day, we just bounced an e-mail to Hellsing MI-13 when we found undead monsters. Kids these days."

The three stared slack jawed as the man walked away to his den.

The twins ran past the three goop covered teens. "What did you do to our car?!", they cried.

"Your car?", Kim asked.

Jim and Tim ignored her. With the two inside the sloth, it took concerted effort to realize which was talking. "It's a mess in here." "The enviromental monitors are shot." "It's saying there's three of us in here." "Check the log." "At least it read five on the way back," ",so switching from heart beat monitors to entrance/egress sonar counts caught Rufus and Yori at least." "You know what this means?" "Overhaul?" "And you know what that means?" "Upgrades!" "Hikabickaboo?" "Hooshah."

Kim waved her free hand in dismissal. Then the three made their way to Kim's bed room.

"You take the shower, Ron.", Kim said. "I'll go find a sponge and bucket and I'll see about Yori."

Ron nodded and the two living left Yori in Kim's room. As Ron closed the door and the shower started, Yori gravitated toward Kim's bathroom. Her hand outstretched toward the door, until it came to rest on it. The corpse, clad only in hakama and chest wrappings, found herself laying her head on the door and then pressing against it. Kim's return startled it.

"I found two of the tw'eebs shop buckets, actually.", Kim stated.

Yori spun around to find her contracted monk's girl friend holding what she said, in addition to one of them being filled with sponges. Then it remembered and turned back toward the door and saw how it left a smear of synthodrone goo on her bathroom door.

"I apologize, Possible-sama.", Yori told her while looking at her feet.

Kim set down the buckets. Then she walked past Yori with only one of the sponges and dabbed at the smear. "No big."

Yori sighed. "You are most generous."

"'Domo' doesn't mean 'thank you' in Japanese, does it?", Kim asked as she finished with the door.

Flashback

Kim and Yori bounced from rock to rock amongst the lava, bound together after their capture by Monkey Fist.

"Nice moves.", Kim complemented.

"Domo.", Yori replied smugly, confident that Ron would appreciate a ninja's suppleness over the cheerleader's.

1

Yori kept her gaze at her feet. Sighing again, she admitted, "'Arigato' is 'thank you'. 'Domo' often accentuates it because it means 'very'...but can be translated as 'verily'."

The ninja nearly gasped as she felt a dry sponge begin to take away some of the goop. Kim drew the sponge across Yori while seemingly test touching the shikabane with her free hand. Once doing so was determined to be safe, she used the hand to steady the corpse and used more force with the sponge.

"That's how you really feel about Ron, isn't it?", Kim asked.

"'Domo'?", Yori asked.

Kim turned Yori around and looked her dead in the eye, communicating nigh-telephatically. _I know you know what I'm talking about._ Kim raised an eyebrow, _Back at the lair..._

Yori was unable to keep her gaze. The shikabane stooped to fetch a sponge and started removing goop from Kim.

"Hai.", Yori conceded. She then moved to pull Kim's purple, drenched mission shirt...tying up the first attack of a jealous girlfriend. "I am sorry."

Kim smiled wistfully. "I envy you."

Yori's eye brows clenched.

Kim pulled off the shirt and continued taking the goop off Yori. "I love Ron. I also love my mom and dad, Monique, the rest of my friends...even the tw'eebs...even Uncle Hoss and Joss. I want to say that the way I love Ron is special. But the way I feel about any of them is different from one to the next. I can't honestly tell you I love him the way you do. I don't know if I would come back to life if the way you feel is it takes. Ron deserves someone who loves him that much."

"He deserves to love someone who can love him in return. Not simply a monster that clings to regret and obsession.", Yori replied. "Besides, I am contracted to Stoppable-san. I know how he feels about you. "

"Ugnh...", Yori collapsed. The corpse fell onto Kim. Its fingers dug into the girl and Kim winced as she started to bleed. "He's gone! AAA/

2

Ron closed the door to the bathroom and hurriedly disrobed. Considering the day, he decided to hurry with his shower and get back to Yori as soon as possible. Well, not Possible because...you know, she was there right now.

After the quickest of hosing downs, Ron dressed as quickly as he could. He was still tying his shoe when Rufus 3000 appeared before him.

Ron watched the highly evolved naked mole rat step from the glowing blue portal. "Hikabickaboo, Ronald Stoppable."

"Dude, Rufus, wait, what?", Ron stuttered.

The naked mole rat explained. "I am Rufus 3000, one of many evolved naked mole rats from what you would consider the future. The world is in great danger, and beyond the breaking point. Now that we have the technology, I have used time travel to come back for the legendary hero. The only man who has ever tempered the Great Enemy: the Ultimate Monkey Master, Ronald Stoppable."

"Wait a minute.", Ron started. "Since you got time travel, we can be back before we left. Let's get this bon-diggity show on he dilly-oh."

"Hooshah!", Rufus 3000 declared. "Follow me, into the future."

With that the time-traveller returned to his time. Ron followed.

3

Rufus 3000 and Ron stepped into a grave yard.

Ron asked, "So since we're in the future, does history even say I time traveled?"

3000 coughed into his fist. Ron glared at him. "Er...I said, history said you disappeared before the rise of the Great Enemy."

"What?!", Ron cried. "What-you-talking-about, Rufus?

"How are you talking anyway?"

Rufus nodded. "The Great Enemy evolved naked mole rats after your dissappearance. The first words uttered unto my people were 'Because you remind us of him'.

"But come, there is someone who may be able to explain better than I."

Rufus 3000 led him through the grave yard. Multicolored light made this the most psychodelic grave yard Ron could conceive of. Eventually, Ron came upon a familiar face.

"Yori!", Ron cried out. He raced up to the naked girl. She sat draped over a simple headstone with a Star of David as its only emblem. When the corpse turned toward them, he could make out the name on the headstone.

"Ron Stoppable!", they cried in unison.

"It is truly you, Ron-kun!", Yori declared. The girl threw her arms around him.

"What happened?", Ron asked. "Why is the light so weird? What's with my grave? Why are you naked?"

"You've come back, Ron-kun.", she told him in between kissing every inch of his face. "That has what happened. It will be my honor to hold onto you forever."

Ron shook his head. "I need answers, Yori. Tell me what's going on."

"Would you not like me to suck your dick instead?", Yori asked. "I remember that you get bored with long speeches but always glazed over into a stationary drool when I kissed you. I want to do whatever will keep you with me."

"Tell me what I want to know or I'll leave.", Ron warned.

"_**NO!**_", an angry corpse told him between jagged teeth. Glowing green eyes packed in a grey skinned, pointed ear face warned him not to stray.

"I mean, please don't Master Stoppable.", Yori asked in the demure visage he was accustomed. "It will be my honor to obey you.

"You disappeared twenty-three years, forty-four days, eleven hours, twenty-three minutes and eighteen seconds ago since you had called my name. I know because I counted the seconds by the time it took me to kiss you the first time.

"The world has changed since then, Ron-kun. All because of one person's shikabane:

"Kimberly Anne Possible."

"No.", Ron denied.

"You only have to look to the sky to believe, Ronald.", Rufus 3000 told him.

Ron looked up while Yori's corpse licked his neck. The graveyard was lit up with all the different colors of the rainbow because that's what was painted across the sky. Every memory of him with Kim was displayed for the world to see. He was seven, holding onto the back of Kim's bicycle. He was eleven, guiding Walter Nelson and Kim to the car that was going to take them to the orthodontist to get their braces untangled. He was five, playing doctor with a Kim in his tree house. He was seventeen, helping Kim celebrate Christmas by 'unwrapping' his 'present'.

"Aw man.", Ronald believed.

"Her curse was simple. 'I can do anything.' Villains did not believe and they died. Global Justice could not find you and they died. The Kougon sect attempted to contain her and they died.", Yori explained.

"She blamed me for your disappearance, Ron-kun. She drew this mockery of your memorial from the stones of Yaumanouchi. At the one marked for you, she mystically chained me. The elements took my clothes years ago. The vermin oft times come to gorge on my flesh.

"But I knew you would come back. That I regenerated every time, I knew my contract with you was not broken. I had faith, Master Stoppable. I held that faith to my heart and never let go. Now I have been rewarded. Do you not want my tongue to show your penis what it thought of all these years?"

"But shikabane are supposed to regenerate anyway.", Ron objected.

"It was because we are bonded, dearest Ron-kun.", Yori claimed anyway. "I assure you."

"Wait, time travel!", Ron declared. "Rufus, you can send me back and I can stop all this!"

"I am sorry, Ronald.", Rufus told him. "The time stream is singular. The fact that you have come to this future means it is, from your perspective, inevitable. The only thing I can offer is a chance to save this world from the Great Enemy's shikabane."

"That's wonderful.", gushed Yori. "If that naked mole rat had been able to take you from me, I would have had to eat him. Now we can be together forever."

"Or the boy can save the world.", Lord Montgomery Fiske interjected.

"_**YOU!**_", the monster screeched with a dozen whispers. "_**I won't lose him again!**_"

Yori jumped at Fiske. Then a crystal blue chain appeared around her neck and stopped her from straying more than two meters from the gravestone. Ron used this chance to scurry away from her clutches. Yori instantly realized what she had lost and crawled toward Ron. Ron was too far away for her grasp, but that didn't prevent the leashed naked teenage girl from reaching out and moaning in desire.

Fiske started speaking in perfected calm. "I can send you back. You can prevent this, Master Stoppable."

"Dude, of all people why would I trust you?", Ron asked. "Is the future really that crazy?"

Montgomery nodded, then bent on one knee. "Would the 'Monkey Fist' you know bow before you? Acknowledge you to be the Ultimate Monkey Master? Let us say that Yori-sama's taking my last servant away from me was a...moment of Zen.

"I attempted to take your place when you were no longer with us. I now know that I am not your equal, nor can you simply be succeeded. I kneel before you only as your humble servant, Master Stoppable."

"You still cannot re enact the time line.", Rufus 3000 warned.

"Au contreir, frer rongeur sans polis.", Fiske countered. "I hold in my hands not the technological marvel you used to create this travesty by stealing Master Stoppable from the world. This is the Tempus Simia: its limitations are magical, not scientific. A noble heart and that hands of destiny can change the course of the world."

Ron was still wary. "It that's the case, just hand it over. Then I can fix everything, everywhere."

The elder cast his head down. "That is one magical limitation. If you gain the Tempus Simia from me, then there is no reason to get the Tempus Simia and I will not have it to use it now."

"Huh?", Ron asked. Then he clutched his head. "Oooh, temporal brain-freeze."

"_**You hurt him again? I will drain your heart of its life's blood villain!**_", Yori began in an unholy chorus.

Fiske focused on Ron. "We must hurry. It is inevitable that Ms. Possible will learn of your return. This is what a completely trapped shikabane is, Master Stoppable. Imagine what your true love's corpse will do when she finds you again."

Ron turned back to Yori. Her bulging, decaying, bony skin. Glowing, threatening, psychotic eyes. Nails that were growing toward him; as were her arms. The prehensile tongue alternated between hurling curses at Fiske and salivating over him.

"Alright, monkey man.", Ron stated. "Hit it!"

"No, you'll unravel the time stream!", Rufus screamed.

The naked mole rat drew a laser and was disarmed of it by Ron before he could even aim. Rufus took a step back and that was the last move he ever made. Yori's corpse devoured the creature with little gore and many tiny crunches of bones breaking as her teeth and throat crushed him.

"See how greatly I can serve you, Master?", a now pleasant appearing Yori asked. "Imagine how my throat can pleasure your penis?"

"uh, anytime Fist.", Ron continued.

Fiske held up the idol and a blood red portal, laced with lightning grew to human height.

Ron questioned it. "That looks more like hell than home, Monkey Fist."

"I know three billion survivors that would say the same about the planet as it is now.", Fiske replied.

Then Ron heard it. The wind carried it. It was a howl. It was cry. It was a plea. It was rejoice. It was damnation. It was hundred many things. But it was undeniably a voice. It called for one desire: him.

"I do not think you will want to see her as she is now, Master Stoppable.", Montgomery informed.

Ron jumped through the portal.

1

Kim turned Yori around and looked her dead in the eye, communicating nigh-telephatically. _I know you know what I'm talking about._ Kim raised an eyebrow, _Back at the lair..._

Yori was unable to keep her gaze. The shikabane stooped to fetch a sponge and started removing goop from Kim.

"Hai.", Yori conceded. She then moved to pull Kim's purple, drenched mission shirt...tying up the first attack of a jealous girlfriend. "I am sorry."

Kim smiled wistfully. "I envy you."

Yori's eye brows clenched.

Kim pulled off the shirt and continued taking the goop off Yori. "I love Ron. I also love my mom and dad, Monique, the rest of my friends...even the tw'eebs. I want to say that the way I love Ron is special. But the way I feel about any of them is different from one to the next. I can't honestly tell you I love him the way you do. I don't know if I would come back to life if that's what it takes. Ron deserves someone who loves him that much."

"He deserves to love someone who can love him in return. Not simply a monster that clings to regret and obsession.", Yori replied. "Besides, I am contracted to Stoppable-san. I know how he feels about you. "

Yori leaned in and kissed Kim softly. She only pressed her lips to Kim's, then moved her head to the other side and did so again. The shikabane leaned against her and kissed again.

Yori pulled her head away. "I apologize, Possible-sama. Typically, I can sense a reflection of Stoppable-san's love for you. For a moment, I felt it flare up within me as if it were doubled, stronger...sorely missed? I am sorry if I have offended you."

"Oh...um...", Kim pondered. "So...er, you can tell how much Ron loves me?", the red head inquired.

Yori's smoky black eyes smiled back at her. Resting her forehead against Kim's, she replied. "It would be my honor to show you most intimately, Possible-sama."

Then Kim's bathroom door opened. A disheveled Ron stepped out with a confused look on his face.

Kim took it as wonderment of his girlfriend in the arms of Yori, and not the symptom of time travel.

Yori took it as an opportunity.

The shikabane rolled her head with Kim so that they were both facing Ron, cheek to cheek. "Your consort looks most ready for bed, does he not? It will be my honor to guide him to yours."

Kim smiled at the man she loved, who she realized deserved all the love he could handle. "I'm sure it will, Yori."

The two girls sauntered to Ron and each took one of his hands. The boy stumbled toward Kim's bed speechless. The two teens raised his green and white jersey away from him, then his underlying black shirt. The two girls sunk him to a prone position.

"You do not seem ready for bed, Possible-sama.", Yori whispered the in the bedroom's silence. The shikabane leaned over Ron to Kim. Grasping both of Kim's breasts, she squeezed her bra cups together and released the front clasp. She slid the lingerie from Ron's girlfriend while the boy watched.

Having watched Ron's reaction, Kim moved. "You aren't bed ready yourself, Yori."

With that, Kim moved her hands to Yori's wrappings. Putting her hands to Yori's back, she pulled the corpse into a kiss. Pressing her chest against the shikabane, Kim held the wrappings to Yori as she untucked the end of them. Pulling them loose, then free the red head backed away to let them fall away to expose Yori.

Kim laid down next to Ron. Yori seemed to sense it was one of many mini-rituals the two had when Kim softly sang in a whisper.

As the girl nestled against Ron: "Night time is a great time for kissin'/Night time is a great time for remeniscin'/I tell you, I'd rather be lonely than happy with somebody else."

Ron hugged Kim to his side. "You know I love you, KP? Even if you something happened and you wouldn't have to do anything crazy. I'd still have your back."

Kim closed her eyes and laid her head against Ron's shoulder. "I know, Ron."

Kim's hand snaked out and found Yori's. She gently pulled Yori down to the other side of Ron. "Nap time, Yori. Don't forget the blanket. Please and thank you."

Yori grinned ear to ear. With ninja agility, she kicked the comforter up and caught it in mid air. A gentle sweep and it alighted over the three teens.

Kim pushed over Ron, gave Yori a peck on the nose and barely whispered, "Honsetly. Thank you."

Kim returned to her previous position, shook out her hair and rested again.

Yori mirrored Kim on the other side of Ron. Yori whispered, "Possible-sama, your hair really is 'flippy'."

"Mmm-hmm.", Ron agreed. The boy turned his head toward Kim and might have been asleep before the gentle kiss on her forehead connected.


	7. 4 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Kim slowly and comfortably came to her senses. She found her head resting against something softer than she had expected Ron to be. Her mind started paying attention to her sense of hearing next, carrying Yori's voice already in what she could only assume to be a lullaby from Japan: "Even if only for a moment hold me, heart and all, in your arms/ So I can feel the warmth of happiness/". When the girl finally opened her eyes, she was strangely curious why the sight didn't send her into a rage.

Kim found herself lying against Yori's naked breast. Her boyfriend was still asleep yet instinctively suckling at Yori. The shikabane had apparently rearranged herself between the two while they slept and now cradled the two living.

Yori noticed Kim's alert state. "I have no heat of my own and felt you both would be more comfortable once I...how do you say, equalized(?) with you. Besides, Ron loves you even as he sleeps."

Yori applied just a small enough force to lift Ron from her nipple. Ron's face flickered momentarily before stuttering out, "mm, Kim...huh where?"

Yori let the sleeping boy return before she continued. "It is too cute, is it not?"

Kim smiled adoringly at her boyfriend and rubbed his shoulder.

"Is Rufus attempting to communicate something to me?", the corpse asked Kim.

Kim raised up to Yori's vantage point. Rufus danced at the door, squeaking and chirping.

"Oh no!", Kim warned. "Dad's coming."

Ron hopped from the bed, landed in a stance and a half-dreaming mentality. "Hwa-aaa...", he growled.

"Save it for the movies, Ron.", Kim commanded. "We've got about ten seconds before Dad puts us all in a probe to Saturn."

Ron instantly shook off the sleep induced incompetency and tried to keep up with Yori's undead speed. Kim could only point at the answers to unasked questions that resulted in actions that were beyond her ability.

Yori had ripped off the synthodrone stained bedding. Upon seeing Kim begin to point at her closet, the ninja finished pulling out a new sheet, comforter and pillows before the girl fully extended her arm. Yori tossed the linen over the middle of the bed. Ron somersaulted over the bed, catching them all in mid air and had sorted out the sheet before Yori vaulted across the room. When the corspe landed she caught the other side of the sheet that Ron still held. The two proceeded to dress the bed with beyond military precision.

One of Kim's ten seconds had passed.

Kim unzipped her mission pants and flipped out of the slacks. Ron swept the comforter over the bed. Yori nearly became a black and tan blur as two pillows and their pillow cases floated in mid air before her, arms stuffing some inside others. The bed was done even as Kim started flinging clothes out of her closet.

Two of Kim's ten seconds had passed.

Yori caught an incoming blue wrap skirt and whipped it back at Kim. Kim was absolutely shocked when it wrapped around her hips. Yori dove to recover Ron's green sleeved, white t-shirt while the boy took her hakamas like the wrapping from a popsicle. The corpse cartwheeled over hurling the shirt into the air. Ron stepped in behind her as Kim was throwing an old light green tank top at Yori. The two flowed into the garments.

The third of Kim's deadline had been exhausted.

Ron round-offed over the bed to Kim's old locker computer. Yori snatched an old pair of three quarter length jeans past Kim and hopped down them while the other girl pulled a sleeveless white and blue hoody from the closet. Dressed but barefoot, Yori stood in back of the living girl and pulled the hoody from her hands above her head. With Kim's arms outstretched upward, Yori pulled the shirt over her with clearly inhuman speed.

Ron stomped all over Wade's greeting with the question, "Did you happen to get a chance to put any enhancements in my monk's robes yet?"

By the time Mr. Dr. P actually walked up the hatchway to Kim's room he was met by the deceptively innocent sight. Ron and Kim held hands out of Wade's view, seated directly in front of the communication computer. Yori stood at ease just behind Ron in an outfit he had not seen on Kim in a year or two, when she seemed to wear it all the time. The man tried not to notice how the girl's long legs made the pants seem short, or how small the tank top must be.

Kim's father cleared his throat. All four faced him. "uh, Kimmie-cub? Your mother's back and dinner's gonna be ready in a few. Come on down as soon as you're done, okay?"

"Sure dad.", the girl replied.

Once the man had walked back down into the house, the living let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm glad that's over with.", Wade began. "Now onto the robe. Man, have I got the covalent bond weave that you need! A synthetic polymer reintegra/"

"Thanks. You rock, Wade.", Kim cut him off.

Wade's hands came up from his keyboard as if questioning just before his face blinked off the unpowered monitor.

"Are you sure you want to wear that down stairs, Yori?", Kim asked. Yori had always been more top heavy than Kim, so Kim's out grown tank top strained on her. Despite the corpse' higher waist (and therefore, longer legs), it still revealed the same amount of mid-riff.

Yori stretched and bent, testing the material. "Hai, Possible-sama. There is no need for further generosity."

Kim and Ron raised eyebrows at each other.

2

The three teens walked into the kitchen. Dr. Possible, the rocket scientist, guided the twins in so they wouldn't rush in as normal. Dr. Possible, the brain surgeon, set the table.

"James, what do you think you're doing?", the woman asked.

The man brushed it off. "Just checking the scores dear."

Anne turned to the teens. "You'd think that he'd just watch the game he recorded without spoiling it, but nooo/"

The woman dropped a plate as she heard what the television told her.

"Kimberly Anne Possible has finally shown the world the murderer she has always been!", Dr. Drakken was quoted.

Everyone's heads turned to the television. The image of the shikabane receded into a floating square to the right of the reporter.

The reporter explained, "Today, Drew Theodore P. Lipsky turned the U.N.'s planning session for the memorial of fallen superhero, Hego, into chaos. Ceded the first speech by the memorial's executor, the newly pardoned Shelia Go, Mr. Lipsky went into a tirade that blamed the teen hero for a string of human rights violations. Unlawful invasion and murder being the least."

"I've walked a path that has taken some amazing things for the world to forgive.", Shego began. "But what did my brother ever do? All he did was help people. He protected us...all of us. Why did Kim Posssible murder him? Why did she desecrate his remains?"

The reporter continued. "Ms. Go's emotional appeal wasn't the most surprising development today."

The newscast switched back to the podium at the U.N. Struggling with his mundane wheel chair, Felix Renton rolled to the microphone and adjusted it to his seated height. "I knew Kim Possible to be many things: intelligent, competitive, athletic, passionate...but even jealous. I didn't think I had any reason to fear her, to not invite her into our home. Now, my home...now that she murdered my mother."

"The U.N.'s secretary general had this to say.", the reporter dispassionately droned.

"We must remember where these accusations are coming from.", the diplomat stated to a herd of reporters. "These people were the notorious Dr. Drakken and Shego before being recently pardoned. While their...how do you say, "noses have been kept clean" since this council arranged two of very _very_ few world-wide pardons for them, we must understand that forgiving is not forgetting. It was a matter of policy to pardon anyone that saves the world single-handed; to promote the continuation of such and understanding that the world would give certain leeway to the defenders of all nations. But that leeway is not infinite.

"However. That limitation is also to the privileges that Miss Possible enjoys. There is a large difference between crossing borders without a visa to enforce sanctions upon an abhorrent military regime and cold-hearted murder."

"In summary, I am certain member countries will offer the investigation these accusations merit."

The reporter appeared back on screen. "No security council member has commented on any of these charges.

"Today in sports: The New/"

Mr. Dr. P turned off the television. The kitchen grew very quiet.

"We need to respond to this situation before it develops, Possible-sama.", Yori reminded.

Kim sat down heavily. "And how do I do that? 'Don't worry world, I'm just monster hunting with my boyfriend.'"

Mrs. Dr. Possible tried to support her daughter. "This is just another one of his schemes, dear. You always foil them."

"No.", Kim told her. "This is because he's undead and so is she...go. We tried to return them and they got away."

Her parents backed away from her. Her father asked her, "Did you kill Dr. Renton, Kimmie-cub?"

"I did.", Yori told him. "I discovered that it was an undead monster responsible for a number of murders who only served a single, selfish obsession. And I set the world right by removing it.

"Your daughter knew nothing until the act was complete."

The two elders tried to assess the impassive shikabane hime. Yori met their stares with a willful dispassion.

"How many have you've...um, taken, Yori?", the woman asked.

"Dr. Renton was the first. Hector Go was the second. My master and god-father was the third. My attempt on the corpses known as Drakken and Shego is my only failure.", Yori replied.

Ron spoke up at that point. "Look, Mr. and Mrs. Dr.s P. I know this seems sick and wrong. But Yori's right to do this. These things obsess and no matter how cute or great you think these obsessions are, they take lives. Unchecked, they are just death unchecked. We have to stop them."

"Then what about your friend, Ronald?", the rocket scientist asked.

Yori nodded. She crossed the kitchen and knelt before Jim and Tim. "I want you both to understand that I would never hurt you. No matter what. But can I ask you to go behind your mother while I answer Dr. Possible-san?"

The twins nodded and moved to the woman. Yori moved between the sitting Kim and the standing Ron. "I am one of these monsters. But I am bound to Stoppable-san. The Kougon sect bound me to him and that allows me a path to heaven: saving the world from 108 of these threats, whomever they may pretend to be."

"But what about your obsession?", he continued.

"I was stripped of it in the ceremonies that prepared me for the binding.", Yori told him. "I gave it up along with the curse I would have inflicted upon people at their temple."

The doctors nodded. In the resulting silence, the living took their seats. Yori remained behind Ron's chair.

"So what are we going to do?", Anne asked.

"Mom.", Kim started. "This isn't your fight."

"It isn't yours either, but you're involved.", her father told her. "Now, if you're in trouble young-lady, that happens. But if you expect your family to do nothing about it, then you're wrong.

"Why is Ronald shaking is head?"

Ron looked up abruptly. Everyone was staring at him. "uh, no reason?"

"Don't worry, Ron.", Kim assured. "If you have an idea, there's no harm it saying it. Sure, you might be in a room full of geniuses. But when have my parents been anything but supportive?"

"It's not that, KP.", Ron replied. "Alright, here goes. What if we...take the team in different paths?"

The boy winced as his girl friend lit up the room with her smile.

"That's brilliant!", Kim declared. "You know how you never seem to be remembered? This is what it must have been for. I'll call in favors and get some of our more famous rides to vouch for us in the public eye, squashing this quick. You can take Yori away while I do that. Anyone who actually investigates anything Drakken has to say will find security footage that I didn't do anything to Hego. And I can talk to Felix and find out if Drakken brain-shampooed or brain-drained him or something.

"Here, take the Sloth."

Ron looked at the keys that Kim offered. "Are you sure? You're not going to blame anyone for putting distance between us or anything?"

"Why would I do that?", Kim asked. "Drakken and Shego are the jerks here."

"Monsters.", Yori corrected.

"Thanks Yori.", Kim continued. "See, even Yori knows that. And besides, the sooner those _monsters_ are in the ground and don't have the U.N.'s ear, the sooner this whole thing will be over."

Ron nodded numbly. He accepted the keys and stood, holding and kissing Kim's forehead.

Kim giggled. "Who are you, my father?"

With that his girl friend laid a big smacker on his lips.

Kim's father coughed purposefully, even before Ron and Yori made their exit.

3

Ron and Yori were in the Sloth and freshly laundered 'business' outfits. Ron had been silent for nearly the entire process of washing and drying his mission clothes and Yori's black gi, listening to the twins sound off on new modifications and the entire flight.

Yori moved to speak but Ron hastily cut her off. "I know where I'm going!"

Yori frowned, then placed her hand on his shoulder. "I was going to say that you miss Possible-sama, even though it's only been a few fleeting moments."

Ron tried to laugh but fell woefully short. "Heh, heh...er no. Don't be rediculous, Yori. How could I miss KP already?"

"I am bonded to you, Master Stoppable.", Yori reminded.

Ron's eyes narrowed. Yori continued, "I feel that I miss Possible-sama as well. I feel what you feel, to some extent."

Fortunately, there was nothing around the flying roadster but clear skies. A startled boy asked, "You can read my mind?!"

Yori smiled comfortingly. "No. But I can offer you empathy. Would you like to talk about it, Ron-kun?"

Once telepathy was denied, Ron seemed to settle. "No, I would not like to talk about it, Yori. Not now, not ever. Okay?"

"Of course, as you will, Master Stoppable.", Yori stated demurely.

The two rode in silence for many minutes more. It took Ron unconsciously shrugging for Yori to take her hand away.

"We're here.", Ron said. The car's display mapped out a far flung island in the Canaries.

"How do you know the two shikabane we seek are here, Master Stoppable?", Yori wondered.

Ron shook his head. "Don't let the expensive, super-villain lair defenses fool you. They aren't. Or at least I hope they aren't. Or maybe I do, but that would be too easy and too easy really never is. You know, they should stop calling it 'too easy' and start calling it something like, I don't know...'surprisingly difficult'.

"We're here because we need answers and probably a lot of them. I have an idea on how to get them but it's going to take some doing."

4

"Are the intruder alerting systems not performing as I should be expecting?", Señor Senior Jr. wondered.

Ron in full mission gear, shrouded in a blue monk's robe walked across the room with impunity.

"Do the stopping there!", Jr. commanded.

Next to him, Bonnie Rockwaller scoffed. "He's just the loser, come to ruin my free time. Besides, he's dating the murderer. Just, I don't know, like, do something super-villainy to him or something."

Junior shrugged. He had asked for a bossy girl friend. Junior stepped into Ron's path and pointed at him, taking a breath to speak. He never uttered a word as Ron grasped the finger and jerked. A sudden shudder flowed through the man's body. Ron walked on while Junior stayed in the same exact position, if the occasional twitch.

Bonnie ran to her boyfriend and then turned on Ron. "Oh, no you didn't loser. You did not just paralyze my hottie with some of that monkey mojo!"

Yori chose that moment to reveal herself. The black hooded ninja rose from Bonnie's own shadow. She removed the hood and brushed it across Bonnie, startling the girl into turning around. The shikabane hime grasped Bonnie's hand with a frighteningly strong, spooky cold grip and laid it on her neck's pulse point. Bonnie at first appeared offended then confused. The girl's fingers reached for a moment and confirmed the lack of a pulse. Bonnie was standing in front of a corpse.

"May I eat her heart, Master Stoppable?", Yori whispered to Bonnie. "I've desired the taste of evil's spite for so long. Let me consume this sinner in a plume of gore."

"We got more important things to do.", Ron replied.

Yori frowned. "Thank Master Stoppable for considering you worthless, my tasty treat."

Bonnie nodded as best she could. "Thank you, Ron. Sir."

Yori stepped away even though her grasp lingered. Eventually, Ron and Yori exited the room.

Out of sight, Ron turned to Yori. Both struggled to stifle their laughs. "Oh, man. Did you see the look on her face?", Ron asked.

Yori giggled behind her arm. Her smile was the warmest one he had seen of her.

Then it clicked. Yori was physically taken back by how fast Ron's emotions shifted from jovial to scared. Ron told her, "I don't want you eating anyone."

"It was a joke, Stoppable-san.", Yori assured.

Ron's serious face was well in place. "No more jokes like that. Don't even think about it."

Yori bowed before him. "Of course, Master Stoppable."

Ron touched her gently on the arm to bring her out of the bow. "Let's go talk to the big man, alright."

His shikabane hime nodded.

The pair continued on. They came to a huge room that was too large to even attempt a name. At a table that belonged at a beach side restaurant, sat an elderly, Spanish gentleman. "Ah, Mr. Stoppable. I can only assume you are here to stop whatever plan my son is attempting. Please, explain how my son is attempting to better himself and introduce your pretty friend, yes?"

Ron started. "Oh, right! Junior!"

The boy snapped his fingers. Loud breathing sounds came from the door the two had entered.

Señor Senior Sr. poured out three glasses from the same pitcher. "Can I interest you and your lady friend in a glass of Sorbete de Cava y Limón?"

Ron and Yori glanced to each other, then joined the man at his table. "Sorry, I'm not twenty-one, yet.", Ron replied.

"Oh, my dear boy.", began the European. "We have no such illusions in the Old World. Come, indulge."

Yori glared at the man. "It is not as if the alcohol can affect me, Master Stoppable."

With that, Yori downed her entire glass of frozen treat. Yori whispered softly enough it would take a ninja to hear and in Japanese, "There is no poison, Ron-kun."

"I am glad I have not botched the recipe then.", Señor Senior Sr. stated in perfect Japanese. Taking into account the surprised looks, he went on in Japanese. "I have many guests from around the world. An old man would like to believe he is at least, how do you say...accommodating. But please, I only know the formal language of the empire. Let us relax in the much more...casual...English, no?"

Yori nodded.

"Alright.", Ron conceded. "Actually, we're here because of your guests."

"Has Junior attempted to kidnap them again?", Sr. asked. "A pity. But then again, the boy was never the most imaginative."

"We're not here because of Junior.", Ron replied. "We're here because you have something I need. I think I can offer an exchange."

"Ho ho, a threat from a great warrior!", Sr. exclaimed. "The day looks more exciting already."

Ron shook his head. "NO! No...no, no, no. I mean, a deal, a bargain. I give you something, you give me something."

The man looked confused. "Hm, I do not follow. This doesn't seem to be in the hero-villain dynamic."

Ron laid his head in his hands. "Alright, let me try again.

"Once upon a time, a young Señor Senior Sr. was born in Spain just before World War II. With the demands of the war and Spain not under fire from either side, it was easy for a young man to rack up a fortune in laundering British bribes to Spanish generals and trading in tongue-sten (?), tungsten ore to German factories and diamonds to German government officers that wanted out of Hitler's craziness. In no time at all, you were so filthy rich that you never imagined you would ever spend it."

"In fact, you were bored. But it was then it was the last hay day of the daredevils. Men who got the greatest thrill out of life. Men who you watched growing up."

Sr. objected. "Do not forget the always charming Ms. Helen Gibson. But pray, continue."

Ron nodded. "So you took up that. That started the legend of the Triple-S. I was totally blown away by your MSX moves, by the way."

The man lifted his cane in his shrug. "Ah, the age is over. These allegedly 'extreme' sports you young people play at...they are neither very sporting or extreme. It has been some time since walking on the wings of a plane or barreling head first through a brick wall only stopping when the car under you could no longer endure has been done anywhere outside of a computer system. It is another reason I have admired you and your Ms. Possible so very much."

The boy went on. "Eventually, what happens to all the greats happened to you. You aged. You convinced yourself that family life and enjoying your money were the things a man of your age should do. You grew not only bored but resentful of it. No wonder you grasped at villainy. But it's not like you've done anything in that regard lately.

"But I can offer you what your money can't buy. Excitement."

"Ho ho.", Señor Senior Sr. exclaimed. "And how does the great Ronald Stoppable claim to offer to excite me again. It is not as if your Naco fortune compares to that of my own, even if your classmates would consider your hundreds of millions to designate you upper middle class. And the most entertainment you have ever offered me is in the midst of executing a scheme of villainy: Will it work? Will the heroes prevail? So how can you offer me this 'excitement' in a deal? What can raise up my weary heart?"

"Hunting the undead.", was Ron's simple answer.

The man's face fell into complete seriousness. Both his hands clung to his cane. The only indicator of any emotion was the man's eyes, lighting up with hope.

"It is very dangerous to lie so openly to your host, boy.", he half-threatened.

Ron turned to Yori. Yori nodded.

The shikabane tugged more neckline from her gi. She took up the ice pick from the Sorbete. Walking around the table, she offered the ice pick to Señor Senior Sr. "Have you ever impaled a young girl's heart?", she asked him.

The man looked to Ronald. The boy shrugged. He returned his gaze to Yori. The girl knelt before him, reminding him of a timid geisha.

"Perhaps you have prepared this trick in advance.", he told them. "So I will instead aim for a lung."

Sr. stabbed Yori to the hilt of the ice pick in her chest, just above her wrappings. The man met the girl's gaze and waited for a sign of discomfort. Yori smiled as a conspirator.

"I am sorry. I should have asked a younger man to wound me mortally.", the ninja managed to flirtily tease.

He yanked out the ice pick and felt the hole. It was indeed an untreated wound in chilled flesh. With a breath, Yori whistled to him without opening her lips.

"What do you need of me?", Señor Senior Sr. asked Ron.

"You know I have money.", Ron asked. "But I'm young. I need connects. Hook ups. The kind you must have mad."

"All of my contacts are most congenial.", Sr. objected. "Will that be a problem? Will it prevent me from taking part of this most grand adventure?"

"Depends.", Ron told him. "What does 'congenial' mean? I mean, you might want to explain to Yori 'cause English is her second language."

Yori giggled. "Oh, Stoppable-san. You and your American style ignorance."

"Oh!", Yori gasped. Ron had touch his palm to her back. Sr. witnessed the wound he inflicted close.

"The associates I keep are many and various.", the man explained...to Yori. "They are simply friendly once...how do you say, their palms have been greased appropriately."

Yori corrected her gi. "Thank you for informing.", she replied.

"It is a gentleman's honor.", Sr. assured.

"It will be our honor to accept your aid in our quest.", Yori told him. "Provided Master Stoppable approves."

Ron waved his hand. "Sure, sure. Honor all around. How soon can we get some info?"

The man rested his chin on his cane, while considering "Hm. A task of this importance may require the best money has to buy. I take it you are looking for every lead you can acquire, not someone to follow up on leads of your own pursuit?"

The two nodded.

"I have a man in mind. It will be some time before I can arrange a meeting. Perhaps you and your lovely lady friend would partake of my hospitality in the interim?", Sr. offered.

"Later.", Ron replied. "We actually have an else where to be."

The man nodded and rose. "Then until I have the opportunity to penetrate you with something not quite as hard, my unnamed dear."

Yori rose with Ron. "Oh you.", she replied while flirtily batting a hand at him.

The man barely caught himself on his can and the table before he was slapped to the floor.

Yori turned expressionless. "And I am Yori. Master Stoppable's Shikabane Hime."

5

Once the Sloth had retaken the air, Ron turned to Yori. "What would you have done had he gone for your brain with that ice pick?"

"Broken every bone in his arm.", Yori replied instantly. "Unless you commanded me to die. Then I would do so with all the grace and thankfulness I could muster."

Ron shook his head in disbelief. "That was a pretty big hole he put in you. Are you ready to fight by my side?"

"Always, Ron-kun.", Yori told him.

6

The Sloth blew away dust of the ancients as it touched down, blowing it around statues of creatures. Each seemed to be of one beast, but another as well.

Ron double checked himself. Ron could have sworn he expected Yori to take her own precautions instead of posing in front of him for him to double check her.

After that, Ron walked up to a brass handle and pulled. It instantly leaped from his hand as a giant stone temple rose from the ground. On every story, another one of the bi-special beasts was locked into a stone form. Once its rise was complete, a monkey in purple clothes walked out.

The monkey brought his full height to Ron's waist. "_**Who dares disturb Yono the Destroyer?!**_"

"It is I. er, Ron Stoppable, the Monkey Master.", Ron cried out while waving his arms dramatically.

"Ultimate.", Yori stage whispered.

Ron nodded. "That too."

The Yono looked at the pair. Then he laughed. He continued to do so until he was rolling on the ground.

"Look guy.", Ron began. "I just need Monkey Fist back and then we can be on our way. No need to just laugh at me when I haven't even lost my pants."

The monkey stopped laughing. "**_Why?_**", the Yono and Yori chorused.

"Uh, that's spooky.", Ron informed, as if the two didn't know about their monstrous voices. "And as for why, you know, I think that's my business. So I'll thank you to A B C your nose out of it."

"_**If you dislike my nose, then what of my eyes?**_", the creature asked.

Its eyes began to glow just before a stone inducing beam flew at Ron. Ron turned to the Yono's side and punted it into the risen temple. The stone of the building cracked as the monkey rolled back toward Ron in recoil from the impact. Ron stomped on the monkey once it rolled face down.

Ron proceeded to yell his question, accentuating each word with a ferocious stomp. "I. Said. 'Where' 'Is' 'Fist'?"

Then the boy knelt into the creatures back while pulling the Yono's legs from behind. Yori laid next to the monkey and hugged both arms behind its back with her left arm and held its gaze away from her and Ron with her right.

"It will be your honor to answer the Ultimate Monkey Master's questions.", Yori informed.

"**_This whelp cannot be he._**", the monster informed.

Yori held tight. "Master Stoppable is ascended, I assure you."

The Yono laughed again, if uncomfortably. "**_Then you have no idea who I am!_**

"**_I am the one from the jungle continent. I am the first who truly mastered Tai Sheng Pek Kwar. I spread my teachings far and wide. I am the one who brought Monkey Kung Fu to the land of the rising sun. I will spread it with all the passion in my undying heart._**

"**_My students saw me hunched in frailty. Rather than watch me descend into senility and weakness, they constructed a temple to me and laid me within. It sank into the depths of the stone mountain once I was inside. And when I left this mortal coil, I was invigorated with the strength of the surrounding stone itself._**

"**_So do not tell me who is the Monkey Master. I, alone, know that true answer. Immortal as stone, flowing as water...only I command the dark side of Mystical Monkey Power!_**"

Yori and Ron reached the same conclusion at the same time.

"The tribesman.", Ron realized.

"Master Umbtubu.", Yori lamented.

This was the first's shikabane. He had lived a life consumed by only one passion, the spread of his discovery. His curse was of his death: a command of stone. Hence, the temple was no longer visited and the map to it was torn in two. It was plain to see once one looked.

"I don't care.", Ron declared. "Give me Monkey Fist."

The Yono had used the time to raise its tail silently behind Ron. Just before it struck, Ron's blue ring popped out of existence leaving the Lotus Blade. Ron swung it under handed, straight through the tail even though it stopped before his monk's robe. Ron stabbed the katana through the leg he let go and into the solid rock.

"Give me Monkey Fist!", Ron yelled over the Yono's screams of rage.

"**_I will destroy both you and the pig, imposter!_**", the shikabane roared.

"Pig?", Yori wondered.

"Short, round, fat, pink, snub nose, beady eyes...", Ron considered. "Would want Monkey Fist. DNAmy! That's what the statues are about. You turned them to stone while she ducked out with Monkey Fist."

"Is there anything else you wish to know from this thing, Master Stoppable?", Yori asked.

"**_Stop calling him that!_**", the Yono wailed.

"No.", Ron agreed.

Yori tightened her hold on the shikabane's head. "Then I may honor Master Umbtubu's life by destroying his corrupted corpse?"

Ron nodded solemnly. "The Lotus Blade will do what you need."

Yori seemed to hesitate. The corpse took a deep breath. With blinding speed, Yori let the Yono's arms go. Ron wrapped the arm he had been holding the Yono's trapped leg in around the arms. The ninja then pulled the Lotus Blade from the mountain like it was Excaliber in the anvil and stone. It fell in a crystal blue blur through the Yono's brain pan.

Ron jumped away as the Master Umbtubu's shikabane dissipated. Yori rolled into a kneeling position.

The shiikabane hime revered the blade. Yori touched her head to the mountain and used her flexibility to raise the blade above her head, offering it back to Ron.

"You have honored me, Master Stoppable.", Yori told him. "And I deserve none of it. I have killed two masters in one day. All my power, all your gifts...I have traveled further today through a marvel designed by children than any student of Yamanouchi had in a week. And all of this, why? To kill my sensei and my ancestor? I do not deserve to use your Lotus Blade. If you will command the blade to take the form of a whip, I will lay over any stone you command."

Ron kneeled beside her. "Remember what Sensei said, Yori? These creatures can't help themselves. Remember what the Yono did the last time it was let out? I'm not going to pretend to know what it's like for you. But I am going to remind you that we are fighting the good fight. We're saving the world.

"Kim would be proud of you."

Yori looked up at him. "That means the world to you."

Ron gained an expression of confusion but then admitted it. He smiled and nodded.

"Then there is no greater compliment. I return the Lotus Blade to your hand, Ron-kun. Reshape it how you see fit."


	8. And Justice for All

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Britina smiled brightly at the host of Interesting. "Like, Kim Possible has saved the world time after time. Sure, there's the personal rescues: my Chicago show that caught fire, and the time the supervillain Camileon was framing every famous face. But the teen wonder has saved me just like she saved everyone. I remember totally hiding in my basement when the Diablos tried to destroy human civilization!

"And Dr. Drakken was behind that terrorism as well."

"So when an old nerd tries to defame a teen superhero, like, I have to get the word out."

2

MC Honey pointed directly into her hosts face. "Girlfriend saved us all out in Compton. That blue mo-fo tried to shift the continents all crazy and nearly flexed all us San Andreas all up off the globe."

"Knawaamsaying?", she continued.

3

"You know, if weren't really really spooky in here, I'd be only a little spooked right now.", Ron told Yori. "I'm glad I have another person with me."

The two had sneaked into a bioengineering ethicist's nightmare. DNAmy's creations milled around in prison cells right out of any sci-fi horror film. The work space itself was draped in long splashes of shadow that left entirely too much up to the imagination.

Yori giggled. "Oh, Stoppable-san: you and your unnecessary American-style flattery. I am not a person anymore. If you refuse to think of me as a monster at your command, than at least designate me a tool of your will ready to enact your wishes at your slightest whim."

Ron considered it. "That's...a kind of sweet."

"Just like my Monte.", DNAmy stated. "But you can't have him!"

The criminal mutator stood in a doorway to her lab in all of her pink bathrobe, corn chip crumb covered glory. Flipping the light switch, the lab was flooded with brightness. The previously half-bored, mostly depressed multi-special creations roared into a shock induced rage.

"What makes you think we want Monkey Fist?", Ron asked as casually as he could over the animals' noises.

"I want Monte so very badly.", the crackpot explained. "Therefore, obviously everyone in the world's most sacred desire is Monte as well."

Ron turned to Yori. "It makes sense in a paranoid-schizophrenic sort of way."

Yori shrugged, as it didn't seem to matter one way or another to her.

DNAmy continued unabated. "Well, in honor of him: Monkey monkey! Attack!"

"What in the world is a 'monkey monkey'?", Ron puzzled.

DNAmy cackled. "A new infusion of monkey dna and monkey dna! A more powerful creature than ever seen on the planet before! An abomination that's half-monkey and half-monkey."

"I may not be familiar with American-style mathematics.", Yori said very carefully. "But in Japan one-half plus another gives a single whole."

"Go forth and destroy them, my minion.", DNAmy commanded.

A simple looking monkey bounded over to the two intruders at a slow pace. When the creature reached Ron, it sniffed him. Ron scratched it on its head.

"She is aware that you are the ascended Ultimate Monkey Master, is she not, Master Stoppable?", Yori puzzled.

Ron nodded. "I'm still getting used to it myself, so I haven't really taken the time out of my day to send out a notice. Or even post in on Kim's website. Maybe word's just slow to get around."

"Never!", the woman roared. "It was my Monte's dream, and so it shall be. You will never be the Ultimate Monkey Master."

"Oh! oh, oooh!", the boy started. "You know, I've gone through a lot and it seems I am the Sole Sovereign of Simian Serendipity. (Man, that's a lot of school words.) Anyway, I'm tired of talking to people who are barely crazier than they are fat when that's not really a limiting factor.

"So let me get right to the point. Give me Monkey Fist!"

The woman pointed at him. "See, I knew you were only here to steal my Monte away from me."

"But I didn't want to jump to beating up an old lady if I could steal him all sneaky-like.", Ron replied.

The boy tapped his forehead, "That's how the ninja-brain works. Oh well. Yori, please search the place for Monkey Fist. Since, the old lady is still alive that means she's my problem."

"I'm not old!", DNAmy objected.

"Fine.", Ron blew out. "I'll keep the _mature_, obese, mentally-ill menace to society busy while you find Monkey Fist."

The boy turned back to DNAmy. "Does that make you happy?"

4

Yori walked calmly to where she had found Monkey Fist. Ron used great strength to take huge steps every bit of the way as DNAmy held onto him for dear life, dragging against him the entire trip.

Ron gaped at what he saw. Monkey Fist stood frozen in the same statue form he had last seen him in. But the man was also dressed in a thong, a garland, sunglasses and flip flops over his stone gi. Taped to the walls of the room were photos of DNAmy and the statue at beaches; in the water, sunbathing (brrr), and holding hot dogs from cart vendors.

Ron turned back to the mad scientist. "So we went on vacation. We're allowed to unwind.", she protested.

"How sick and wrong can you be?", the boy screeched at her.

Then he remembered the caged half-sheep, half-wolf trying to eat and flee itself. "On second thought, don't answer that."

Ron broke her hold on him and shoved her to the floor.

"Don't move or I'll end up shoving every single one of those things upstairs inside you.", Ron told her. "And not in a pie.", he added, making sure it was indeed a threat.

Ron stepped up to the frozen stone form of Lord Montgomery Fiske. The boy placed one of his large ears on its chest. Nodding to himself several times, Ron backed a step away.

Then with a kick, Ron knocked a quite fleshy Monkey Fist away in a shower of stone skin.

Monkey Fist blinked wide eyed as if waking up from a bad dream. He noticed Ron, "You!". Then Yori, "You!". And finally, DNAmy, "You!".

"I'm outta here.", he announced. Then the supervillain took off on all fours.

Ron made as if to go after him, but then slumped. "You know, I've had a hard day. I so do not feel like chasing after a monkey-man right now. Yori, let's head back."

"As you will, Stoppable-san.", Yori acknowledged.

Ron continued. "I'm not making a bad tactical decision here just because I'm lazy."

"Of course not, Stoppable-san."

"I'm just saying, we've been fighting and arguing all day except for that nap, so now's not the time to track down somebody as dangerous as Fist."

"I'm sure, Stoppable-san."

"And he's alive, so it's not like letting a monster loose on the world, right?"

"Absolutely, Stoppable-san."

"And if he's gonna go after some Mystical Monkey Power, he's gonna have to come straight to me now. So we probably don't even have to chase him that hard."

"Right again, Stoppable-san.", Yori agreed repeatedly. The ninja placed a hand on his arm. She assured, "Master Stoppable, you do not have to justify your actions to me. They are already because they are yours."

"And you!", Ron pointed directly at DNAmy. "I don't want to have to come back here and take you down for being dangerously whacked. Keep the crazy to your own self for once. Your lab, keep it here. No crazy on the street, in the ocean or up in the air. Grab all the crazy with both arms and plop it right down here, in your own lap and keep the rest of us out of it."

The two teens stalked back the way they came. "Wolf-sheep need fleecing-feeding and monkey-monkeys. Agh! Don't get me started!"

5

Kim sat in front of her old locker computer in her bedroom. She appeared ready for bed in purple sweats and tank top, but way too energetic.

"So how did it go, Wade?", the teen asked her super genius support.

The child glanced around in a counter-clockwise pattern at various off screen monitors. "Human's poll has you breaking in front of Drakken 83 percent-Team Possible, 15 percent undecided. Rumor has it that the 800 Club is gonna rescind that anti-mid-riff statement because of your new mission clothes, so some of that undecided should break in our favor."

Kim shook her head. "What was that zombie thinking? I've kept Bonnie at bay for years. Did he really think he was going to beat me at a popularity contest?"

"Had to try?.", Wade supposed. "It was pretty imaginative (for him) not to jump straight to the monologue-death ray-defeat strategy.

"I'll stay up and keep track of incoming polls."

Kim grinned. "You rock, Wade."

The girl signed off. Kim rose from the chair and flopped on the bed. The same bed that Ron had been half naked in earlier that day. She smiled, then went and locked the trapdoor to her room.

This time, the girl slid into her bed and rolled onto her back. She took in a deep breath and held it, as if she could summon his essence at will.

"KP?", Ron asked her.

The girl looked up and saw a ghost of her boyfriend hanging in mid air, arms floating loosely at his sides. The phantom opened its eyes and alighted on her bedroom floor. "I can't be going insane out of sheer neediness.", Kim said aloud. "Mom told me so after those first dreams about Ron. And she's like, a brain surgeon!"

Ron smiled and took a careful step forward. "This isn't the first time I've appeared before you, Kim."

Flashback

Kim was pulled along the induced current of cookie batter. Barely keeping her head above the goo she couldn't believe her eyes.

Hovering in mid-air before her was her best friend dressed in his so very mundane khakis and jersey despite she knew for fact he was in mission gear right now.

"Kim.", the image demanded. "Do not fear. Let the beating of the blades and the beating of your heart merge together. You _and_ the mixer become one."

End Flashback

"You can do that?", Kim puzzled.

The image of Ron, dressed exactly as he was the first time she saw this manifestation, shrugged. "Apparently, I've always been the Ultimate Monkey Master. Who knew?"

"Where are you?", his girlfriend asked.

"Asleep at Señor Senior Sr.'s.", the spirit replied. "Well, not really 'asleep' per se. But 'out of it' enough that Yori's guarding my body.

"I've cut a deal with the old man to put some excitement back in his life by having him help track down shikabane. In exchange, he's letting me use his island and his contacts. So not only will we get Drakken mad fast, any body snooping won't be able to pin Yori on you.

"But it is Triple-S. So I didn't kimmunicate with you, have Junior do something dumb like try to trace Wade and have the kid go real-world again. But I did miss you."

"Wow, Ron.", Kim wondered. "I never had a guy astral project for me before.

"And you came to see me, you say?"

Kim kneeled on the bed, turned slightly away and touched her toes. The teen flipped her hair before turning her gaze back to him. "Is this what you wanted to see? Or did you want more?"

Kim turned her upper body away and peeled her tank top off. When she turned around, her arms clutching herself. "Is this what you came for?"

The girl smiled. "That's the look I was hoping for. I was beginning to think you didn't like this.", she teased.

Ron's spirit's tongue hung out of a dopey grin. "Ron-ey likey.", he said as he floated over her.

Kim giggled and laid back, never letting go of herself. "So you won't mind if I get more comfortable?"

The image shook its head. The girl adjusted and held herself hidden with one arm (or as much as one arm was going to manage). The other arm slunk down to her sweat pants, loosening the draw string. A simple push and the sweats became a memory as two long pale legs drew themselves into view.

"Monique said I should get something fancy, something lacey and sheer.", Kim told him. The girl allowed plain cotton to come into view, adorned with only one central pink heart reminiscent of one of his favorite of her shirts. "I think this makes me look virginal. I thought that would...please...you, Ron. Knowing that I was only yours, now and always. Me telling you that I'm waiting for you and you alone."

Kim flipped her hair over a shoulder to lie back flatter. She let her now free hand seek out the heart in the middle of the cotton. "Do you know how much I want you Ron?

"Not just when we shower together. Not just when we're sleeping in each other's arms. And not just when you save me. Or when you're dancing with me. Or when I hold onto you as tight as I can and feel the thrumming of your scooter's motor. I want you all the time. I want you to be on top of me. I want you to see me at my most wanton."

The manifestation of Ron floated down to Kim. Kim's pretense at modesty was shattered as her remaining hand joined the first. "Can you watch me, Ron? I want you to watch me need you. Be careful though, it might be a little intense."

Kim gazed into the glowing brown eyes above her for as long as her busy fingers let her. The girl shifted slightly at first, as if a simple change in position could alleviate her tenseness. Once she began to communicate only in a secret series of whimpers and sighs, her body no longer pretended to want to say still.

"Oh, I want you Ron.", she breathed out, clenching her eyes shut. "But...but more. I love you."

After a few cooling breaths, the girl regained the use of her sight. She found only her room and none of her beloved. If there was any justice in the world, she would at least have been allowed to cuddle with him.

Justice...world...? Global Justice! That was the favor she had not call in yet. Who better to deal with this United Nations nonsense than Dr. Director, who owed her so many times over.

But that meant getting out bed. Maybe after a few minutes. It's not like GJ was not a twenty-four hour a day operation.

6

Ron woke up. Too intense was right. He rubbed his eyes. Even though he was 'back' he still felt like he was nearly there. His own urges even felt like satisfaction was a tense moment away.

Wait. He had rubbed his eyes. Ron stared at the two hands in front of his face. He still felt, and his hips bucked again-toward...something.

The boy pulled the silk sheets of the Seniors' guest bed away. A naked, busy Yori was revealed with a flourish. She allowed her lips to come away from him to speak. "I would not like it said that Possible-sama did not satisfy you to completion in your visit, Ron-kun. It will be my honor to service you in her stead."

If Ron had any objection, it died in his throat. At the same place he seemed to reach in Yori's throat if she had anything to...well, mumble about it. As worked up as he was, it took no time at all for the girl to finish him.

The naked, muscled shikabane kneeled beside Ron in the dark. Yori tucked its chin down and let all of Ron spill out, over its chin and down to its chest. Moving its lips in sticky smacks, "You told me not to eat anyone, Master Stoppable. So I've let you flow over my skin instead of down my throat. Do you not want to order your humble servant to swallow, master. She'll obey you, Ron-kun. I want to obey you so much..."

The monster moved her fingers dexterously over her skin, as if to keep from losing any of the precious substance until a decision was made. The dark room allowed enough light to show Yori's expression flickering between bashful hopefulness and sultry desire. The corpse lifted a nipple to its outstretched tongue. "It would be so easy to taste it all back up, Ron-kun."

Ron nodded slightly. Yori spent minutes lapping at breasts she raised to her lips, at fingers sucked into her mouth. Every drop received with a moan of vampiricaly sated pleasure. After pulling from her body the last time, the girl collapsed on the bed breathing hard without need. The young ninja pulled the sheets over her and Ron, facing away to offer a spooning position to her contracted monk.

"You should try to rest as much as you can, Master Stoppable.", Yori told him. "We do have the appointment Señor Senior Sr. has been gracious enough to arrange tomorrow morning."

Ron was reminded of Kim when the girl's well muscled back nestled against his shoulder. Ron was reminded of death itself when he felt the cold flesh of the corpse drain his heat away. Ron refused to look at her, even a glance, because the risk of being reminded of the future (by the point of an ear, by a gray pallor to the skin) was too great to bare.

7

A freshly showered and mission uniformed Kim walked the night. Or at least, Bueno Nacho's parking lot portion of it. "I feel like I'm in Beetle-Juice.", she muttered. "Global Justice, Global Justice, Global Justice."

The girl braced herself with a wince. Nothing happened. She opened her eyes and spotted the hole that took her to her first meeting with Dr. Director about five feet behind her. A single back-spring later and the hole was never there.

Kim braced her hands against the sides of the capsule. The last time she experienced g-forces like this, let alone had a clear view of what hyper-mach speeds did to thin air, was when the Sloth was reentering the atmosphere after Motor Ed. After a bit, the acceleration reversed itself attempting to smear Kim across the other end of the capsule. After landing, a portion of the personnel carrier popped open.

"Ms. Possible.", Agent Will Du greeted. "Thank you for coming in."

"Hey, Will.", the girl greeted. "I really need to talk to Dr. Director."

The man cocked his head then returned to passivity. "Of course. Kimberly.

"Please, right this way."

Du led Kimberly right past the main monitoring area. Other agents and the occasional scientist made to turn to them, but returned to their previous tasks at a wave of the agent's hand. Kim felt rushed through the room. She barely saw what she thought was a picture of Mego and the Wego twins along with some text on a wall until the entire wall blinked into a Global Justice emblem.

"So how have you been?", Will asked as they walked down a plain corridor. "Kimberly.

"You're out of secondary school now."

Kim nodded and flashed a conversational smile. "Yeah. The Lowardians tried to kidnap me and take my skull into outer space as a trophy, but no big."

Du raised an eyebrow. "The U.N. credited Drew Theodore P. Lipsky, alias "Dr. Drakken" no actual doctorate, and Shelia Go, alias Shego, citizenship:United States of America with the Earth's defense. It was the sole impetus for their universal pardons under U.N. resolution 1898. This was not the case?"

"Oh sure, they helped.", Kim offered. "But it was mostly Ron and me."

"I.", Will corrected.

"What?", Kim asked.

"We're here.", Will informed. He held his hand out, chaperoning the way in to Dr. Director's office.

"This is a pleasant surprise, Ms. Possible.", Dr. Director noted. "What made you decide this was your best course of action? If you don't mind me asking."

"Well, it's not exactly a social visit.", Kim informed. "You see, I have a problem that I thought you could help me with."

"You don't say.", the woman stalled. She glanced quickly at Du.

Her agent nodded back. "Kimberly. Could you describe this problem for us? So that we may be better prepared to aid you in its solution."

"Sure.", Kim said brightly. "Drakken went to the U.N. and tried to call me a murderer. On the news, it seemed like they were nearly going to take it seriously. As if! But better safe than sorry. So I've been calling in favors all afternoon and evening to sort of 'come to bat' for me. Then I realized, who would know more about this stuff than GJ?

"So can you offer any advice or explain how things really are to the right people...? Please and thank you."

"That explains the unscheduled celebrity interviews.", Director told Du. He nodded in reply. Kim looked back and forth between them as if noticing them for the first time.

"You knew about this.", she realized.

Dr. Director sighed while Agent Du remained standing at ease. "Ms. Poss...Kimberly. May I call you Kimberly?"

"Fine, whatever.", Kim replied hastily.

"Thank you.", Dr. Director continued. "Feel free to call me 'Betty' by the way.

"It is our job to know about these sorts of things. Literally. Global Justice directly answers to the U.N.'s Security Council. We have more authorization, and therefore responsibilities, than Interpol. Thanks to your aid in saving a particular Russion diplomat, deposing a dictator hostile to U.S. interests, the People's Republic's typical disinterest in anything outside its borders and several missions directly aiding the E.U. every single veto wielding member tabled any overt action in Team Possible's apprehension.

"Which means, U.N. resolution 1901 put your case is under our sole jurisdiction. It is my responsibility to investigate all of Drakken's claims, not limited to unlawful extradition and attempted murder upon him but Hego's demise as well. And let me assure you: the States public opinion of you and their private concerns are very different.

"So please, tell me exactly what's going on."

"Starting with the location of the other elements of Team Possible.", Du interjected. "You want us to help. We have no reason not to, adequate political and military capital to do so. How can we help you and not help Ronald as well? All we need is his whereabouts."

"You sound like you're going to arrest him!", Kim objected. "Look. Shego and Drakken are the bad guys. We're the good guys. You and me...and Ron for that matter! Why are you jumping all over us?"

Du looked down cast. Then he took a step away from the wall and touched his watch. The wall displayed video as he spoke.

Traffic camera footage of Yori fighting Hego, then being confronted by Kim and Ron, ending with Yori taking off and being chased by the two played. "This was taken in Go City. Alone, it seems simply ironically fortuitous: classic example of arriving a moment too late. One of the U.S.' greatest heroes is murdered in broad day light and a pair of freelancers just happen to get there a split second afterwards. When the assassin flees, they give chase.

"But then this occurred.", Du recounted. Footage played of Global Justice forensic scientists scouring Drakken's lair. "Here we found skylight glass caved in with traces of 'Sloth Fuschianic Siesta' auto paint. Are you known for driving a heavily modified, heavily re-called, obsolete, vintage car that no one else in the world even values? In this lair, we found hairs mixed in with synthodrone liquid polymer matrix matching samples on file from the ill-fated Ron Factor project as well as another D.N.A. sample.

"And it was that additional sample that create a truly puzzling scenario.", the man continued. The wall displayed a fight between two very dangerous women, after one launched herself from Kim's flying car. One was easily identifiable as Shego. Global Justice had no idea the other's name was Yori.

Agent Du told Kim what they did know. "From previous arrests, our agency knows that information (including security footage) gleaned from Drew Lipsky's computers are suspect. But the additional D.N.A. sample came from a South-East Asian female with naturally black hair, genetically predisposed to slenderness, excellent circulatory and muscle systems if a slightly askew endocrine system, clinical depression and approximately 83 percent of the discovered 'soldier genes' ranging from mental focus to exceptional eye sight to a predisposition towards unfaltering loyalty...remarkably similar to the person shown here. What is of particular interest though, is the fact that the genetic markers (the 'junk D.N.A.' if you will) matches a blood sample from the murder of a Triad gang lord in Bangkok. It matches a hair sample from the assassination of a Myanmar (formerly Burma) colonel known for human rights abuses. I could continue, but I believe you get the point."

Dr. Director told kim bluntly, "We need to know what's going on. The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the sooner we can be clear of this case and its consequences."

"Who is this girl, Kimberly?"

Kim thought about lying, but as soon as she did her heart started to race. Knowing trained professionals would easily see through any falsehood _she_ could tell, she simply replied, "I can't tell you."

"Ron's in real danger, Kim.", Agent Du told her. "You need to tell us where we can find him. You know, don't you?"

Kim shook her head.

"Kimberly.", Agent Du pressed. "Is she with him right now? Is she that dangerous? Please, tell us what you know. So that we can help."

The girl shook her head.

"We know your boyfriend has not phoned or e-mailed you since the passing of the resolution. Is she with him? The two of them away from you? Alone at night. While you/"

"How dare you.", Kim spat at the man, kicking her chair away as she stood up.

Agent Du narrowed his eyes. "How I dare is by protecting my men. Team Impossible is, at this very moment, in the field with one order: find Ronald Stoppable."

"I had them assigned to capturing Gemini.", Director reminded him.

Will touched his watch again, and a security feed from Gemini's detention cell was displayed on the wall.

The woman shrugged. "I stand corrected. Carry on."

Agent Du stepped into Kim's personal space. "We have a vast amount of data from the Ron Factor project. Your boyfriend is prone to over reacting to any unexpected situation. He has many cowardly phobias that will exacerbate the situation. He reacts to every female but you with a shut down of mental faculties directly proportional to physical proximity. He has no espionage training whatsoever.

"And he's out there with a very violent sociopath. Tell me where he is so that I can protect him for you, Kimberly. You do want to protect him, right? And Rufus? From the pretty assassin?

"Tell me where he is."

"Aargh!", Kim screamed. She shoved Will away and raced to the door. When the door failed to slide into the wall as she expected, she slapped the plate of metal with her mission gloves. The gloves' surface changed just enough to give grip to the polished door and she slid it away herself. As Will got up from the floor, Kim bolted down the corridor.

"That went well.", Dr. Director sarcastically observed.

Agent Du's face wore a well practice 'not holding back a pointed comment at a superior officer, just every day passive' expression. The man walked over to the phone on his commander's desk, punched in a few numbers and began to speak. His amplified voice came in from the hall. "Attention all personnel: code gray. Repeat, code gray. This is not a drill."

Then Will paused a moment. After a thought, he continued. "Lethal force is authorized."

The man hung up the phone. Dr. Director reminded him, "Code gray includes the authorization for lethal force in defense of GJ personnel. Our assets already know that as well as you."

"But Ms. Possible does not.", Agent Du pointed out. "Now that I've informed her, it is only a matter of time before she makes a move on one of the two people with the authority to cancel the order."

"You and I.", the woman realized. "What happens when she ambushes you?"

"Can you take her?", Will asked.

"I can.", she replied.

"Then you come and you rescue me.", he told her.

8

Simultaneously, in a much earlier time-zone, Ron rolled to his right and fell out of bed. "Isn't there supposed to be a wall right here?", the boy asked as he felt around. After opening his eyes, he remembered he was at Señor Senior Sr.'s island home.

The boy groaned and slowly picked himself up. "Up and at 'em Yori. Don't wanna keep the old man waiting."

He spotted Yori in a fetal position on the bed. The shikabane held both hands over the exact place of her stomach. Ron rushed to her side, "Are you sick?"

Yori smiled up at him. "I am no longer subject to disease, Stoppable-san." The corpse rubbed the skin over her stomach again.

Ron's eyes narrowed. "We have to get you showered and dressed."

Yori's eyes widened. Ron recanted, "I'll see if there's a something I can use as a bucket."

"Domo arigato, Stoppable-san."

A half hour later, Ron and Yori were seated at a lavishly laden table. Rufus ran up and down the Seniors' breakfast attempting to stuff himself like a balloon. The naked mole rat eventually collapsed, his life saved from over eating only by the distance between his bloated body and the next tray.

"There are very few things on your person that will actually aid you in our endevours, Senior-san.", Yori informed.

Señor Senior Sr. was decked out in a mock-up of Abraham Van Helsing's duster (or at least, Ron hoped the man wasn't rich enough to actually afford _the_ duster). He was adorned with crucifixes, garlic garlands, lucky charms and old-wives-tales protections. The man uttered a confused, "But are we not in the business of corralling monsters."

"You are correct, honored host.", Yori agreed. "But the only tool you have on your person that will have the slightest effect on a shikabane is your cane, and only if that is driven through their brain...several times for certainty. That act is the only thing to which the undead are vulnerable."

"What about confronting them with their deaths?", Ron asked between bites.

The uneating shikabane frowned...but not at Ron, never at Ron. "That may evoke some...slight discomfort."

A pause in the conversation grew into an awkward silence. Junior interrupted it. "You are well aware that I am not one these shikabane thingies, no?"

Ron regarded him a minute, then returned to gorging himself nearly as much as his nigh comatose pet. "That's not why I beat you down yesterday, Jr."

"Simply doing the checking.", the man replied.

At that moment, Bonnie made an appearance. The teen waddled up to the table wearing a terricloth bath robe, smeared make-up and flip flops. The girl did not sit down, but just grabbed the nearest thing that could hold a liquid and poured coffee into it. After a few sips from a cereal bowl, her eyes opened.

"Good morning, Miss Rockwaller.", Señor Senior Sr. offered.

Bonnie stared bleary eyed at the man for a moment. "Oh. Hey, Mr. Senior."

Then she spotted Yori seated next to Ron. Only then did the girl seem to be truly awake. "Oooh, I'm telling. K's loser out all night with another girl. I don't know which of you two is more pathetic, but I know who's gonna be more jellin'."

Yori raised an eyebrow. "Possible-san knows we are here, acting upon a mission. Even if she did not, I do not know why she would be this 'gel in'."

"Perhaps it would be best to not be late for our appointment.", Señor Senior Sr. stated while he stood. "Mr. Stoppable, if you and your lady friend will accompany me, I hope I can better equip. Junior, see that your lady friend is delivered to her...how do you say, 'summer schooling' punctually. Ms. Rockwaller, excuse me?"

"Like totally.", Bonnie replied from Junior's lap.

Ron frowned at the elderly man. "You do know Yori's name is 'Yori', right?"

Señor Senior Sr. remained, poker face but looking only at Bonnie and shaking his head. "Indeed I do, Mr. Stoppable. But without being introduced, it would be impolite of me to presume."

"Oh.", Ron understood. "Uh, Yori-this is Señor Senior Sr. He's one of Kim's villains! Well not anymore...I think."

Bonnie scoffed. "Loser."

9

Señor Senior Sr., Ron and Yori walked down the stairs to a not entirely empty Bermuda Triangle night club. Which made sense, seeing it was rather early in the morning. The elderly man wore his typical sport coat, slacks and 'too rich to bother with a tie' scarf. Yori's black kimono was tied in the style of a geisha rather than a funeral's guest of honor she first wore it as, off the shoulders with only an expertly bowed cumberbund seeming to keep the robes from coming undone. Ron wore his father's prom suit-only worn three times.

They paid no attention to the few patrons. Most seemed to lay where they had fallen from the previous night's celebrations. Only one man remained hidden behind yesterday's newspaper.

"Mr. Brotherson is as eccentric as any villain you've faced.", Señor Senior Sr. explained. "While he is the first and foremost in underground information sources, he has his quirks. Silly games, particular protocols and the like. Perhaps, I should guide the conversation, no?"

"Dude, no problem.", Ron replied. "I'm all over it. Kim and I first met him a long time ago, on a mission about...uh, Killigan. Yeah, Killigan. And that's the guy I lost five million dollars to in a poker game about a year ago."

The boy pointed at a hung over cowboy. The large man slowly woke up, saw Ron and seemed to instantly replace 'hang over' with just 'hang' in his mind.

"That's the guy I lost five million dollars to!", Ron repeated in a panicked state.

The large man wobbled across the room. Coming to the group, he eyed Ron. "Where's mah money?", he asked simply.

Ron started to hyperventilate. Then a serene peace came over him. "Oh, right. I actually have access to my naco royalties. Dude, let me write you a check."

The man lifted him by the front of his light blue tux. "Your credit's no good with me, boy."

Ron wrapped his hand around the Texan's bicep and pressed with his thumb. The man's grip slid off. In fact, the man came to one knee. Ron looked at him as if he was speaking to a child he did not necessarily like. "Dude. Let me write you a check. For five million dollars. Which is what you want."

Ron let go and pulled out a check book. As he wrote, he muttered and mumbled about today being as bad as yesterday.

Ron let the check flutter down into the man's hand. The Texan caught it, but his other hand instantly came to his bicep with a wince. Señor Senior Sr. tapped the man with his cane. The man shuffled on his knees to one side with his fortune, allowing the three to pass.

They came to a side room. Inside, Big Daddy sat on a Turkish pillow with a hulking bodyguard. "Password."

"Something completely rediculous.", Señor Senior Sr. dismissed with a wave of his hand.

Brotherson nodded. "You're late."

"Sorry.", Ron apologized. "I was just manhandling one of your regulars I stiffed in a card game here."

Everyone gaped at the boy. "What!", Big Daddy demanded.

Ron looked around and saw no support. "Er, I mean, I was busy playing a silly game. Couldn't pull myself away from it, no sir. Love me my silly games."

Brotherson frowned. "I, too, enjoy silly games. Perhaps you will entertain me with one."

"uh...", Ron stalled. Señor Senior Sr. nodded to him. "Sure?"

The professional informant snapped his fingers. His bodyguard pounded a yellow plastic tub on the small table in front of his employer. "If what you have said, however inconsistent, is true then you will have no problem showing expertise in the game of Barrel of Monkeys."

Ron stepped toward the plastic tub. He nervously took it up in his hands, but it soon came apart. A pile of red, plastic monkeys spread out over the table. The boy tried to pull one free but the trinkets soon formed a long chain of hooked arms from as high as he could reach, back down to the table. "Aw, man.", he lamented.

Brotherson frown flipped upside down. "You are indeed skilled."

Ron looked up and saw he was serious. "I mean, 'Aw yeah-I am the man'. I am the Ultimate Monkey Master: respect it!"

"I respect it with all the fiber of my being.", Yori offered. That instantly threw a wet blanket over Ron's rising enthusiasm.

Señor Senior Sr. attempted to get back to the purpose of the meeting. "Mr. Brotherson, perhaps we can now speak of the list I asked you to tabulate?"

"Please, call me 'Big Daddy', Triple-S.", the informant replied.

His elder took one hand from the cane he leaned on and rubbed the back of his neck. "It has been a long time since I could claim that moniker, my friend. However, with your always useful help, perhaps Triple-S will ride again."

Big Daddy produced a packet of type written pages. "The names and locations of every person my vast understanding could include that met your criteria. A near death experience, previously faking their demise and resurfacing, etc. and evidence of an extraordinary or even supernatural ability. Naturally, the location of one Drew Theodore Paeztold 'Doctor Drakken' Lipsky and Shelia 'Shego' Go are at the foremost of the list.

"Is my price in order?"

The Spaniard nodded. "The market price in Euros of a cart and horse, dog named Rover, cart and bull, billy-goat, looking glass, diamond ring and mocking bird."

"Excellent." The informant placed the packet on the table.

"Mr. Stoppable, if you would.", Señor Senior Sr. asked. "My knees are not what they once were."

Ron nodded and accepted the stack of Euro notes the man handed him. The boy kneeled before the table and put down the money, keeping a finger on it. "Uh, how do I know that all these pages are good leads?", he asked aloud.

Brotherson grinned. "I see you have skill at the trading game as well. Please, peruse the pages."

"I'll just look at few instead, if you don't mind.", Ron replied. Glancing through he spotted Melvin Go's as well as Wesley's and Wendell's.

"Thanks, Mr. Brotherson.", Ron said while taking the packet up and leaving the money. "I mean, Big Daddy. You don't mind if we leave now, do you? Looks like we have a big day ahead of us."

The informant waved his hand. Ron handed the packet to Yori. "Can you memorize this entire thing?", Ron asked. "Not that I'm planning on, you know, accidentally losing it. Or having my pants fly away with it in it. Just you know, wanna be prepared."

"Of course, Master Stoppable.", the ninja replied. The corpsed blinked a few times at the first page, then did the same with the second and the third and so on. She was making fairly good progress before hitting the door.

As they stepped out Señor Senior Sr. turned to Ron. Yori's head was still bent to view the pages. Only Ron stared down the barrel of Dash Demond's semi-automatic pistol. "Ronald Stoppable, you and your new girlfriend are hereby under arrest under U.N. resolution 1901. You'll be free from the threat of torture, only executed if your war crimes are punishable by that sentence and given constant medical attention while in custody."

"That is, if you go quietly.", Crash Cranston told him.

"Please tell me that's not the case.", Burn Burmin continued. "It's not every day the entire world wants me to shoot somebody I'd gladly bump off without authorization."

Ron turned to Yori and mouthed the words, 'medical attention'.

The corpse standing next to him understood perfectly. "Whatever you will, Master Stoppable.", she replied aloud.

Ron pushed Señor Senior Sr. and Yori to the floor. The boy threw up his arms. "Ah! I'm a distraction!"

A very unamused Dash yanked on his trigger. Ron barely dodged the People's Army clover five rounds left in the door behind him. Ron's panicked run placed him just ahead of Crash' Central Intelligence Agency triangle placement. He stomped his foot into the ground, nearly tearing a hole in the floor to let Burn's Army Ranger triangle placement fly just ahead of him.

At least they were aiming at him and not KP.

9

Kim stared down the barrel of a fully automatic assault rifle.

She had heard Agent Du's announcement. Those four simple words kept repeating in her head along with a few choice words for the now hated bureaucrat. His order was just going to get more people hurt until she could escape this underground complex for the relative safety of the surface. Above ground was not going to be somewhere GJ could not find her. But it was public and Global Justice hated confirmed evidence of its existance. Or at least she hoped Dr. Director had not changed her mind on that over her and Ron...well, Yori actually.

She had thrown herself through the first door that opened just to get herself out of the open corridor. Kim had no idea that it led to a weapon repair shop. The sole occupant just happened to finish putting together the weapon at the same moment the teen burst in the door. Leveling the rifle at her, he took a hard stance. "Stay exactly where you are, Ms. Possible."

Kim did anything but. A tumbling bullet whipped through her hair as she faked right and ran left. Ducking under the line of fire, another round sailed over her as she crossed to a work bench. She stepped on the counter, into mid-air and the ceiling as the GJ specialist continued his defensive fire.

The teen landed close enough to actually do something. Her hand darted out and caught the barrel in a pinch of her left hand and pulled it past her head. Kim's right hand snaked under the woman's left arm and came up, between the woman's right and the trigger housing. With a simple push, the trigger was no longer touched which allowed Kim to spin the rifle out of her grip and away from the fight.

The agent threw a straight right which Kim allowed to scrape behind her, over her shoulders in order to jab fingers in the woman's arm pit. Pained but seeing the open back, the agent punched with her left only to have it blocked away with Kim's attacking arm. Kim slithered her right from the downward block, under and over and pointed into the woman's left bicep.

The teen used the pain and leverage to force the woman hunching. Her left arm then darted across her body, down the trapped arm and ended with fingers in the woman's neck. What followed were a series of sharp jabs in the woman's head, neck and arm. Kim her left arm keep the woman's arm trapped and then jabbed her right fingers into the woman's body at various points. With her opponent out of fight, she pressed into the artery in the side of the agent's neck and allowed a lack of blood to the brain render her unconscious.

Kim knew sixteen styles of kung-fu. The girl also knew there were way more than sixteen heavily armed, expertly trained agents that were not going to be happy about it.

Well, at least they were shooting at her and not Ron.


	9. 5 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

God smiles on fools and children. Ron Stoppable graduated with a gentleman's C less than a season ago. "one half plus another gives a single whole."...in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Ron turned at a right angle from his stomp, directly toward the three gun wielding mercenaries. Team Impossible formed a firing line simply by bringing their pistols in alignment. Due to the very nature of the Bermuda Triangle nightclub, he was only two table lengths away from the enemy if he went straight toward the business ends of their weapons.

Ron could feel the hot, insistent steel rounds breeze around him. He dropped from a desperate run to a hail-mary roll, allowing three more rounds to sail overhead. The first foot that touched the ground pushed his body directly into a table, bringing him out of the line of fire. Leaning as one, the men turned their weapons on the next route of approach - the other side of the table. But even as they moved their weapons across the table spun. Ron had ended up colliding directly with the table and spinning off it, putting him right back on his old path only a step further.

Team Impossible yanked their weapons from a side aim to a full frontal just too close to Ron. The Ultimate Monkey Master stood on one leg deflecting Crash' pistol with the front of his right ankle; Dash' with an under handed, knife-edge block; and pushing Burn's away with his left. He kicked out with his right leg, and his resulting splits let Burn's shot go over his head. Kicking Dash' shot into Crash's pistol with his left saved his life again as Burn's round hit the floor an inch away from his thigh. Bringing his left foot to the floor connected with the inside of Burn's right knee sending his whole stance (and much more importantly, his line of fire) far to the grounded Ron's left. Ron pulled the surprised Crash off balance with his right foot. Using the momentum of sending his lower body in an arc to his left, Ron's legs passed over his chest while Dash's shot embedded in the floor that should have been under the him. The movement rolled Ron around and then up and under Dash' arm with a force that not only pulled Ron to his feet, but shoved his back into Dash crashing him into a table.

To Ron's right, Burn swung around bodily and fired: a subtle lean forward allowed the bullet to pass behind him. Pulling himself up, Crash shoved a bullet toward Ron: a subtle lean backward and the bullet sailed under his left arm. Popping up from the table, Dash entire arm came over Ron's shoulder: his shot barely registered as a puff of smoke in Ron's vision.

The ex-running back was still hard at work. He wished he paid more attention in Gun Safety because he surely would have remembered how many rounds the men had left if he had. A more distant piece wished he remembered actually taking Gun Safety, or even if such a class was offered at Middleton High.

Ron was a blur as his right arm came over Dash' toward his own head then latched out and fully controlled the mercenary's right, gun wielding, arm. He ducked while reaching out and grabbing a hold of Crash' gun's slide. Dash rolled over Ron's back into Burn's line of fire while Crash was pulled toward Ron by his grip on his pistol. Even though Ron's hand was flat, his right arm came up in an uppercut motion. Crash gun was pulled out of his hand and flew from the fight as he was sent above Ron's head only to land on his back on top of Burn. Ron stepped to Dash on his right foot and punted him with his left, rolling the man onto the heap. Ron leaped up into the open space of the night club, coming down not on his feet or even knees but fists first into the pile of mecenaries.

Señor Senior Sr. could scarcely believe his eyes. The prophecy of unseen adventure rang true. His savior from his boredom delivered a true miracle for him to witness. "It is like watching some sort of simian warrior god.", the elderly man sputtered out.

Yori replied with the only English she could communicate her sentiment through: "Amen."

Dash bent his right arm at the elbow, hoping to shoot the opponent pounding on his chest. Ron shoved off, rolled in mid air over the shot and came down pressing the hot pistol to Dash with his left knee. Ron pulled the left half of Dash body into the gun's line of fire by pulling the wrist of the left handed punch the man attacked him with across his body. Ron lifted his right knee, stabbed Dash' solar plexus with the tip of his right fingers, punched with his knuckles, pounded with the full fist then hammered with the raised knee. Still pulling Dash' left arm with his own left, Ron tore the man off the pile and onto the floor. As Crash tried to stand, Ron's elbow came sailing downward and the combined force to the top of the man's head concussed him unconscious.

Ron stepped forward and kicked Dash's gun away with his left foot as the man lay prone before him. Burn heaved Crash's dead weight off of him and stood. Ron leaned back to press the back of his right shoulder into the right side of Burn's back. When the man whipped around, Ron used the added force to kick around with his right foot over Dash' attempt to roll away. When Burn faced Ron, he pulled back with his right to launch a knockout punch at point blank range. It never connected as Ron's right foot nearly broke his neck when it cracked against his temple.

Burn fell unconscious and uncontrolled to the floor. Ron fell but seem to slide like a marmaset sliding from a tree. He rolled on his back, over his side and landed squatting in front of Dash.

Dash exclaimed in bewilderment. "You said your mastery of monkey kung fu came and went!"

"Looks like it brought the whole parade today.", Ron told him. "Now you've got two choices. You can see that both your guys are still alive to go make new theme songs when they wake up. You can understand that I'm talking to you and not laughing like a maniac in victory. That'll hopefully let you know that I'm not the badguy here. Maybe the bad guy is the mad scientist and his Girl Friday the 13th that tried to take over the world a couple dozen times.

"Or you can ignore the fact that you're still alive. You can still pretend that I haven't caused anyone's death, ever. And because I'm not the murderer you want me to be, your life doesn't depend on the answer to that question."

Dash shook his head in wonderment. "If you're innocent, then why'd you resist arrest? Why not just turn yourself in?"

Ron frowned. "Hey, Senior! You remember that piece of the action I promised you. Special delivery."

Ron pulled the mercenary to his feet and into an out of control run toward Señor Senior Sr. The elderly man pushed against the floor with his left hand and stabbed out with his cane, catching Dash just underneath the sternum. The elderly man drove his legs hard and stabbed the cane into the mercenary's throat. As Dash hunched over gagging, a fully standing Señor Senior Sr. lifted both his hands above his head and brought them down like a conductor, smashing the length of his cane against the back of the man's head.

Ron, Yori and Señor Senior at the dropped Global Justice Hoverjet's remote. The laid out Team Impossible was obvious. Every newly awoken patron of last night's festivities desperately searched for something else to be interested in. The decision to make a clean getaway was a fairly easy one.

2

A rather short Global Justice agent walked out into the hallway with S.W.A.T armor and an assault rifle. She ran into Agent Will Du and his armed escort. Agent Du regarded the woman. "Report."

"Ms. Possible is loose in the base.", the agent said in strangely deep, even forced voice. "I thought I'd armor up. Heard she's got a better record than any agent we've got."

Will frowned. "Pilot, escort me to the hoverjet hangar. Men, leave us."

Agent Du walked down the corridor. The other agents looked to the new arrival. She caught up to Will and the others went back the way they came.

"Why are we going to the hangar?", the woman asked, as they made their way to the hangar. "You aren't actually thinking of leaving everyone to face her alone and escaping?"

When they arrived, Will Du replied calmly. "Desertion in face of the enemy, dereliction of duty, misuse of resources and inciting sedition are all serious offences against regulations. I do not believe I have ever given anyone any reason to expect behaviour outside of those rules from me. Even if they felt I was being a real stick in the mud."

"Ms. Possible."

"How did you know?", the Global Justice agent asked in Kim's normal voice.

"Do you mean outside of the ill fitting uniform, suitable for a fully grown woman and not a younger girl?", Will asked. "Or do you mean the fact your uniform is that of an Equipment Maintenance Specialist and not even a commissioned rank let alone actually that of a Pilot? It is really hard to believe since your baritone was surely convincing."

Kim pointed the rifle at him. "Well, now that that's over, give me one of the remote things to a hoverjet and I'll keep my horrible disguises to myself."

"We both know you aren't going to shoot me.", Agent Du told her.

Kim expertly cleared the slide of the rifle. "How's that?"

Will nearly smiled. "Why do you think I openly referred to your 'alter ego' as 'pilot', then dismissed my men? Even if they weren't smart enough to see through your disguise as easily as I, a highly trained Global Justice top agent, could, they are not the meandering clods your side kick is.

"Sorry. Best Friend, Side Kick, Boy Friend of BFSKBF in teen aged vernacular.

"They are either going to report to Dr. Director that I am trying escape by using a pilot to evacuate me in a hoverjet. Dr. Director knows that I, a top agent, am fully certified to fly one. Therefore have no reason to need a pilot. And so whether or not they determined the person I am with is you, your cover is still blown. They will also realize that for you to attempt to keep your disguise you would have to obey my orders and that you would continue to do so as long as it aided your escape attempt. By declaring you a pilot, I communicated to them exactly where to detain you. And by dismissing them, I've sent the knowledge of your exact location to all of our assets."

Kim frowned. "That still doesn't explain why you don't think I won't blow your head off to get out of here, even after you sent a task force after Ron."

"No, but it did stall for time.", the man explained. "In answer to your question: Kimberly, if you were ever going to actually kill anyone you would have taken out Shelia Go in the Diablo incident. Since you did not, I know I am safe.

"Perhaps it would be best if you just tossed the rifle over there?"

Kim clenched her teeth. Clicking the safety on, she turned the rifle away from Du.

Before he could say anything else, she jammed the rifle butt into his throat. As he gagged, she brought the weapon down on the back of his head. Global Justice' top agent sank to the floor.

She then slipped the Kimmunicator from its pocket. "Wade....", she trailed off as she got nothing but a lit, blank screen.

Kim ran to the hangar door. Flipping off the safety, she dumped the clip. Alarms blared, announcing the gun fire. However, the goal was reached-a hole that would let unauthorized signals through Global Justice' shielding.

"Wade!", Kim yelled.

Wade smiled. "Kim, the president/"

"I need you to hack a Global Justice hoverjet. And maybe the hangar door.", she cut him off.

"What? Why?", Wade puzzled.

"Because that two percent that was backing Drakken in the poll was apparently Global Justice.", Kim explained. "Now, please and thank you?"

"That's a tall order.", Wade declared. "Any chance you can get the Kimmunicator on board one?"

Kim nodded and got back to running. A moment later she was on board a hoverjet.

"Okay.", Wade started. "I already set the door lock to the interior so they won't chase after you anytime soon. That should get the hangar door. And now that the Kimmunicator is on board...it should act like a hoverjet remote, issued to all top GJ agents."

Kim hit her center red button on the Kimmunicator and the hoverjet roared to life. She tossed the device in the co-pilot's seat without so much as a "You rock, Wade." and jumped into the pilot's chair.

Only when she was in open sky did she even start paying attention to Wade again.

"I'm sorry, Wade.", Kim apologized. "But I need to get to Ron and fast. No where is safe for him."

"That's what I'm talking about.", Wade told her. "Colonel Dimitri e-mailed me. Upon review of the security footage of Hego's assassination and the coroner's report of Dr. Renton, Team Possible has a presidential pardon for any charges arising from the incidents.

"And as for Drakken, it seems like the Oval Office hates him as much as we do. It was even...um, suggested we go ahead and do something about him."

"Then I need to get Ron back State-side.", Kim declared. "Team Impossible won't be able to do anything once he's back home."

"Maybe you ought to trust him to go it alone. He has gone on missions without you before.", Wade said hesitantly. "I mean, there's only two GJ hoverjets airborne right now and Team Impossible missed their last check-in. Taking into account the one you've got, that says they're nuetralized. And Ron's all Ultimate Master now. On top of that, he's got Yori with him."

Kim nodded. "Yori would do anything to protect him."

"Listen. I can't tell you what Ron's up to over even the Kimmunicator. Or at least not yet. But if Ron doesn't contact you or me today, we'll have to start some serious searching, alright?

"Is there anyone I can catch a ride from after I drop this off anonymously at a military base?"

Wade nodded. "Timothy North's just been begging to get the Ferret Plane in the air."

"What is it with old men and their desire for a last hoorah?", Kim mumbled.

"What?", Wade noted.

Realizing that was a little too close to the secret, Kim shook her head. "Nothing. Tell Mr. North that I'll take him up on the offer. Please and thank you."

3

This going straight sucked! Shego should have just caught up with that Kougon Hime and the _sidekick_ of all people and lit the living until they understood 'green means go'. But Drakken tried turning them into the U.N., like that was ever effective. Now they were at another time share lair with no henchmen, no synthodrones, no destructobots, no nothing.

Now the doorbell (doorbell on a lair, dumbest thing ever) rang. And if it turned out to be a door to door salesman, the whole going straight thing would prevent her from just roasting him alive. Her primary regret in life was listening to her brothers boss her around and never being free: she should be cracking heads, not whining to the U.N.

Shego eventually answered the door. Lo and behold, the sidekick in what Kimmie would call mission gear. Shego blinked, shook her head and blinked again. "I suppose I should thank you for giving me something to beat on, Dumbo.", she declared.

Ron seemed strangely calm. "Is that going to be before or after the meteor hits?", he asked.

Ron jerked his thumb over his shoulder. Shego followed with her gaze and stared into the fireball in the sky, coming directly towards her.

All bravado evaporated. "Ron, you gotta save me. Please, I'll do anything. Don't let it get me again. I'll do anything, I mean anything. Princess doesn't put out does she? I'll freak your big ears off. No, I didn't insult Kimmie, I mean Kim. God, I'm sorry, okay? Just don't let it get me. Please. I didn't mean it, all those years. I'm a grown woman, Ron: I can do whatever you want. I got money-not that you can't get money on your own, you're not a loser or anything else I might've called you-I just have money and I can give it all to you. Please, Ron! Save me. Save me? Please."

Ron pulled a crystal blue ring off and it instantly blinked out of existence leaving a heavy, spiked club in its stead. The boy passed it to the ninja standing next to him. Yori hit a home run that would knock away an SUV straight through Shego's cranium.

"If I could ask, Master Stoppable...", Yori started. "I would very much like to not use this tactic again soon. I understand utilizing every weakness an opponent offers as viable strategy. It is just that confronting a corpse with its death leaves me...how do you say, nauseous."

Ron accepted the weapon from Yori and a transformation later put the ring back on. "I think I understand.", Ron said somberly.

"Will Senior-san be able to escape the hoverjet, Ron-kun?", the shikabane hime asked.

Ron smiled. "Don't count out ol' Triple-S."


	10. 6 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Señor Senior Sr. squinted against the glare of the fire.

The plan required a fireball hurling from the sky toward the shi-ca-ba-ne. The only options were to fly either Ms. Possible's Sloth or the recently acquired Team Impossible modified hoverjet to an altitude where it would light up as it fell back to earth. How could he possibly ask the young Ms. Possible to make such a sacrifice?

The Global Justice hoverjet was burning up quite nicely in its fall, aided by the overheating engines that were pressed to their maximums. Every window was filled with a bright orange flame. Most of the sensors were off-line by now: it was mostly a matter of faith that the craft was still pointed at the island.

The elderly man used his cane to climb to the back of the cabin. Señor Senior Sr. donned one of the parachutes and climbed to the back cargo hatch. Using some of the straps intended for cargo, he strapped his legs together. Holding the tube Ron gave him in one hand, he slapped the open button with the other.

The hatch door was ripped off. Señor Senior Sr. barely started squeezing the tube before he was sucked out of the cabin. But the contents acted just as Ron had predicted. The 'hair gel' did inflate into a gelatinous blob that surrounded him. The hoverjet raced away from him, burning its course to the island with a hot streak across the sky. He barely saw it as the blob lit on fire in the same way.

Air resistance slowed the mushy mass, but fortunately for Señor Senior Sr. the deceleration was a not very lethal, bone jarring not bone breaking, pace. The fire light nearly blinded him but he could still make out that the gel that protected him from the searing winds dwindled. With only a few inches of gel to go, he had slowed to a pace that the winds put out the flames rather than started them. When he was free of the gel, he was nearly back to terminal velocity. Now, he could actually open the parachute and not have it rip every limb from his body or simple have it torn to shreds.

2

Ron and Yori did not wait to find out their ally...conspirator...asset's fate. The two followed Rufus into the time share lair. The naked mole rat scampered off, returned and then went off on a new path. Eventually, Rufus squeaked heartily after one such search. He climbed back into Ron's cargo pocket and waved his paws in the direction he came from.

Yori bent down to pocket level. "Is Dr. Drakken in that direction, Rufus?", she asked.

Rufus was astounded that she understood. It had taken Kim years to begin to approach the level of rapport that Ron shared with him.

"Is he expecting us?", Yori continued. "Does he have a trap? No? A weapon? Like a laser? A pipe?"

The ninja looked up to Ron. "How does he think he is going to stop us with a pipe?"

Ron shook his head. "I've never gotten why Drakken does the things he does. I suppose that means I'm alive in a way he isn't. But I'm not gonna give him any flack for the pipe. He's up against his end, after all."

The two continued until they nearly came to a doorway in the hall. Rufus started up but Ron patted his head to quiet him.

"We're coming in.", Ron stated simply. "Let go of the pipe and let us in and hopefully this can be...well, not what it will be if we fight our way in."

When Ron stepped into the room. Dr. Drakken was standing with a pipe behind his back, sticking up over his head. The room seemed to be a medical research lab with frankenstien fare like a strap equipped operating table, lasers and other assorted machinery. Yori rushed into the room after him, but slowed when she saw he was not in immediate danger.

"um...Where's Shego?", Drakken asked.

Yori drew an 'x' on her wrist and shook her head. Ron glanced at her and looked down, rubbing his neck. "Yeah...Shego's not coming.", he lamented.

"I know this is gonna sound kind of weird, especially from us.", he continued. "But can I get you strapped in that table over there? I mean, we can just jump to the part where you beef up and fight an undead super powered ninja and the Ultimate Monkey Master made manifest to man. You know, whatever."

"You mean like this?", Dr. Drakken stated from the operating table. The blue man busily strapped his legs and one arm to the table but fumbled with the last arm.

"Allow me, Lipsky-san.", Yori said. The girl pressed his arm down and pulled the strap tight with inhuman strength.

Ron walked up, paced away, then walked up again. "Man, I hate this.", he began. "Look. If you can convince me that you're alive, you can go. I've had my fill of death. Everywhere I turn, someone I respected is an undead monster. Global Justice is making me take out task forces. I so need just a little bit of good news. And if you can convince me you're alive, I can let you go. Sorry and sayanara all in the same sentence.

"But if you can't, then we have a real problem. You hulked out on us before. Even if I could find a way to forgive what you did to Yori, I don't know if shikabane can. And so, here's what I'm thinking:You can hulk out and that means you can shape shift. If you can change your form, then I don't know where your brain is. Punching your skull in isn't guaranteed to take you out. I'm gonna have to tell Yori to incinerate every little piece of you. And considering what you did, I know she's going to show a lot of dedication.

"So help me out here, okay? I'm not the head of my class. You can get one over on the ol' RonMan, right?"

Dr. Drakken nodded enthusiastically. "Sure, no problem. I'm alive. You can take my word for it, R...W...what is it again?"

"Nevermind that.", Ron told him. "Now tell me that the following isn't true.

"Once upon a time, Drew Lipsky was sent to get dates for his buddies back in college. He came back with a dangerous squad of robot girl friends we'll call...oh, let's say Bebes. These Bebes got him ridiculed. The promising student shuttered himself away trying to perfect these Bebes and show the world he was to be taken seriously. In the process, one of these Bebes fought him, scarring him under an eye and strangling him until he turned blue and died.

"Now that he was dead, he couldn't exactly just go back to school. Especially now that the only thing he cared about was showing up the whole world. And fortunately for him, he was granted a new curse-the ability to do absolutely anything as long as it affected the entire world. Sure he couldn't say...commit basic burglary but boy could this guy threaten the world with global freezing or continental drift or even that rogue dinosaur thingie. Appearing as a hulking menacing monster was cool and all, but that wouldn't impress the world.

"Unfortunately for him, he was subject to the same laws as all other shikabane-including the incapacity to deal with what killed him. So his hired girl pushed him around. He was stopped from global conquest not by an army of the mightiest nations by a girl with, let me say, a lot of spirit. Drew Lipsky, now Dr. Drakken, couldn't even bare to tell his mother what he had become and continued in fear of her. He feared any strong female presence that reminded him of this strangulation."

Drakken shook his head. "How could you possible figure any of that out?"

"Attitudinator.", Ron stated. "I turned blue? I'm told you had a thing for Rufus. Any of this ring a bell? It let me put two and two together and get five a lot faster than I normally do."

The blue shikabane gritted his teeth. Drakken started to take his much more hirsute form and Yori promptly slapped him out of it.

Ron sighed. He took off his mission gloves and placed his hands on Drakken's neck, then his wrists and finally his chest.

"Rufus?", the boy asked.

The naked mole rat made to jump from his pocket. Then he spotted Drakken, sniffed the air and shook his head. The mole rat pulled the flap back over his head.

"Yori?", he continued.

The shikabane hime simply shook her head sadly.

Ron nodded. "Drakken...you're already dead. All the chaos you inflicted on the living in your mad schemes to take over the world should never have happened.

"Yori...remember what I said about his shapeshifting."

"Hai, Stoppable-san.", she replied. "The corpse possesses a Ramesh particle inflector. It will disassociate his molecules individual at about a cubic centimeter every seven to eight seconds."

Ron gave her a questioning expression.

"You and your American-style grade-inflationary education standard. A ninja must be ready to use any weapon that comes available, Stoppable-san.", Yori replied.

"Can you handle it on your own?", Ron asked seriously.

Yori placed her hands on his shoulders. "Do not worry, Ron-kun. You do not have to be present for his certain screams. I would like to know you did not witness this particular demise."

Yori placed her lips against Ron's then rested her forehead against his. "This work will be done soon. I will find you when it is done."

"I knew he wasn't really dating the cheer leader.", Drakken blurted out.

Ron back handed him so hard the table shifted positions. Before another blow could land, Yori was rubbing his shoulders. "You will loosen his bonding, Master Stoppable. Do not worry, I will make him suffer."

Ron nodded. "I'm going to see if I can find Señor Senior Sr. Even if he would miss the show, I think it's better if he didn't watch this either."

After he left, Yori turned to the bond shikabane. "You should not have discomforted him. Allow my use of the inflector to demonstrate why."

"Like you wouldn't have burned me to death!", a struggling Dr. Drakken screeched.

Yori dragged the weapon over to the table. "Perhaps.", she replied. "But I certainly can perform the process much more slowly then I need to.

"So when you beg for death, it will be my honor to remind you that you are already dead."


	11. 7 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Ron had the same sullen expression on his face for the past few hours.

A wet but estatic Señor Senior Sr. recounted his fall from the heavens over and over again. Yori took it upon herself to humor the old man, replying with demure acknowledgements whenever the conversation required. Ron flew the Sloth in silence all the way back to the Senior's island to drop him off. Yori was the one that assured their asset that he would remain on the 'hunt'.

Even now, Ron looked straight ahead. Yori kept her gaze to the windshield or her passenger side window. Only her hand on his showed that she was ready to listen anytime he wanted to talk.

"I was telling the truth, you know.", Ron eventually started.

Yori nodded. "Of course, Ron-kun. Your child's heart is one of your greatest qualities."

The boy resettled himself. "I meant...that I'm sick of the death.

"I'm sorry. I know it's to get you to heaven, and if I can't save you then at least I can do this. I know these are monsters and this needs doing. It's just...it's tiring, is all."

"I think you mean 'taxing' or 'wearing'.", Yori told him.

He looked directly at her for the first time in this flight.

Yori continued. "Lay persons tend to say that the first time one kills is when one is sickened by it. That is generally true only when it is planned, like the inevitable execution or planned murder. Yours was in passion, and your enemy so (if you will excuse the term) 'alien' that you never meditated on the subject. Now, you have not committed the act again but you walk the same path as I...or at least, my corpse. It is that choice to walk the path that comes to your soul now.

"What is important to remember is your own self, and your goals. Fortunately for you, you are a better person than other people. Your goals are your ideals and your ideals are your self. Lesser men who have walked this path try to keep one foot off the battlefield, whether by letters home or pornography or songs and in not being whole, lose themselves. You put your whole face on your actions. And your self is reflected in your deeds: did you not spare the assassins who assaulted you, though they gave no reason for such mercy?

"I believe this is what you refer to as your 'Ronshine'."

Ron nodded, then turned back to the skies in front of the Sloth. He smiled grimly and accepted the affectionate squeeze of his hand that Yori gave him.

Yori changed the subject. "Besides, did you not tell that this next destination is the last task before returning to your home? You will be able to return to Kim's arms again."

Ron agreed. "Yeah, that'll be nice."

Ron and Yori both allowed their heads to tilt to the left identically as a warmer smile spread on both of their faces. Ron allowed his love of Kim to fill him. Yori allowed his love of the other woman to filter over her bond with him.

2

Ron and Yori stalked quietly down the halls of Castle Fiske.

Ron held his arms together in his monk's robe. Yori stayed exactly a pace to his right in her typical black combat gi.

Both looked to every shadow of the darkened hallway. Outside it was noon. Inside it was the Dark Ages, literally. The only thing that could even be called 'bright' was the occasional gleam of a suit of armor. The place had a most peculiar double imperial, Japanese/British fusion. Suits of armor were more often of samurai origin than Camelot. Tapestries were woven of wool then embroidered with silk. Every emblem had a distinct theme no matter what it adorned: monkey. Even that monkey looked alive. At until its head exploded.

Ron blinked as hard as he could.

The memories of the last fraction of a second played in his mind. Yori reached for the other side of her gi, which was really weird considering that her chain was in the accessible left flap and her fan was up her right sleeve. Then again, if an object was small enough it could be drawn from her right shoulder. With the way traditional Japanese collars worked, it would be even easier to draw if one was wearing a garment off the shoulders. She had pointed the object at something Ron now knew was a monkey ninja. Then the monkey ninja's head exploded.

The object was a pistol. Yori had found Monkey Fist's servants and chose to shoot them in the face.

As his eyes opened, Ron was treated to another muzzle flash. A samurai helmet was blown free of its armor and the monkey wearing it flew along with it. The shikabane put a hole in one of the hanging tapestries and another monkey fell out into the hallway. She seemed perfectly intent on killing every last one of Fiske's servants.

Ron's eyes widened. "NO!", he yelled. The boy threw himself onto Yori's back and pulled her with him as his back hit the ground.

A shruiken flew over them from behind. Ron felt Yori send a single bullet in retaliation and then heard the thump on the stone floor.

"Arigato, Ron-kun.", Yori thanked. She pecked him on the cheek.

Then she stood up and Ron was carried along like he weighed nothing. The end of the hallway came to a 'T' shape, and Yori slugged a piece of stone from the inside left corner onto the floor. Another shruiken came flying over it. She stepped into the hallway and kicked the jagged rock and it splattered another monkey ninja's head.

Ron let go of the (still surprisingly) strong corpse that professed to obey his commands. "That's not what I meant!", he continued.

Yori cocked her head in puzzlement. She then looked straight up. An unlit chandelier held two more monkeys, both of which were dropped to the floor with a bullet in their heads.

The shikabane hime reloaded the Whalter PPK. She glared at the hallway, emptied the clip shooting, then reloaded again. Seven fresh monkey ninja bodies revealed themselves with blood sprays.

Monkey Fist came running around a corner to investigate the shots. He did not have time to flinch as the monkey ninja riding his shoulder was shot. The one trailing the man to his left spun to its left and right into the path of an oncoming bullet. The only remaining one caught the bullet fired into his face and flicked it back at Yori. Yori dropped as she was hit in the leg but kept firing. The final monkey ninja's skull was torn apart.

"Where did you even get that?!", Ron demanded.

"Hirotaka returned the weapon to me.", Yori answered without hesitation. "You heard me request it by code word. After all, you know I do not have a red kimono."

Monkey Fist gaped, gasped and fell to his knees. "You just had to do it, didn't you? Didn't you, boy!", he cried out.

The monkey ninja's corpses went...fluid. They weren't some fleshy ooze. They were black but not shadow. But they did flow. The corpses behind the contracted monk and his shikabane hime flowed to the same spot the bodies in front of them did. A blob of pulsating dead joined together in front of Monkey Fist.

The blob then solidified into Montgomery Fiske's late servant, Bates, monocle and all.

Fiske lifted the body into his arms. He started speaking, while gazing onto the dead man...ex-monkey ninja...thing he held.

"All Bates wanted to do was serve his lord.", Monkey Fist began. "When I found Tai Sheng Pek Kwar, the others abandoned me. Bates was my Alfred; following a youth with wealth around the world in his training. No matter what Queen-forsaken jungle I searched, Bates stayed by my side. He was the only one with me when my triumph came, and I was finally marked with the Mystical Monkey Power."

"Then you came. After you defeated me that very first time, Bates fell into a depression. He blamed himself for not being the one that led me to ascension as the Ultimate Monkey Master. He thought himself worth nothing, a failure. While stole myself away in my study to brood, he committed suicide in the bath that very night."

"I suppose, in a way he was too honorable. Too dutiful. Too much of the culture of the imperial island. A mere thing like death could not stop him.

"Perhaps, he felt that it was his human form that failed him, considering the woman I endured to receive my own enhancements. The next morning I stood tall to a troop of monkeys.

"And a troop they became. I personally trained them in the way of the ninja. And that fulfilled another prophecy. The Golden Banana would become active only when the impossible occured: a troop of monkey ninjas could muster before it. I felt the utmost gratitude, a gratitude that humbles oneself. A servant of mine sacrificed not his life, but his death for my dream. And when the declaration that the Ultimate Monkey Master would be unstoppable...it was the second greatest moment of my life, and certainly the most joyous.

"But no. At every turn you vexed me. The Ultimate Monkey Master, foretold in celestial alignment and annointed in the stars was not 'unstoppable' but 'Ron Stoppable' a name that no matter how easy to forget, I never could. I blamed myself for failing Bates' sacrifice. So I threw myself at every short cut to the mystical monkey arts I could find...and as an archeologist that was many. No matter what power I sought, you made me fail Bates again and again.

"And now. You free me of my prison of stone just to destroy him before me. You are cruel, buffoon."

Monkey Fist finally looked up to Ron and Yori. It was the most human Ron ever remembered seeing him.

Yori had her pistol pointed directly at Fiske's forehead. "I will obey your command, Master Stoppable.", he reminded him.

Ron put his hand on top of hers. As the pistol pointed to the floor, Ron told her his intent. "We will let him grieve."

Yori regarded Ron. Then she put the pistol back in her gi. The shikabane hime walked up to Fiske. She sniffed him and really looked at him. "Stay alive.", she advised.

The ninja took Ron's arm and walked him back to his car.


	12. The End

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

With the medical kit in the Sloth, Yori easily pulled the bullet from her leg. With a touch from Ron, the tear in her hakama was the only evidence she was ever injured.

The Sloth flew across time zones back to Middleton. A bright sun shined over the town as the Sloth pulled up to the Stoppable home.

"I'll just be a few minutes.", Ron told her as he entered the house. "I'm just gonna take a quick shower and get some non-mission clothes on before going over to KP's."

"Of course, Ron-kun.", Yori told him as she followed him into the house. "I will await your return."

Upon seeing the shikabane hime, Hanna ran across the wall towards the monster. The baby flew off the wall, flailing in an impossible attack.

Yori's back fist bounced Hanna into and out of a dent in the wall and the infant ricocheted off the coffee table to the other wall.

Hanna recovered nearly instantly. She raced to Yori, finally using the floor as a surface to travel on.

Yori lifted her right leg high into the air then sent in crashing down onto Hanna. As she pressed the baby into the floor, the corpse fished her chain and hook out of her gi.

Ron managed to throw himself over Hanna before anything else could occur. "Let her go, Yori!"

"She is shikabane, Master Stoppable.", Yori informed him. "Master Sensei informed me after you had left us. We had conspired to keep this from you. I had hoped that your desire to be with Kim would have you indisposed with your shower while this unpleasant duty was performed. Your humble servant simply wanted to protect you as she had with the Drakken."

"Go outside!", Ron screamed. "Now!"

Yori considered the state of things. "Will master please accompany his humble servant when she is outside?", she asked. Before receiving an answer, Yori took her foot off Hanna.

Hanna still struggled mightily to get to Yori. Ron restrained her and saw Yori's attempt at the puppy-dog pout.

A moment later found Ron standing on his front stoop with Yori kneeling in front of him. "I apologize, Master Stoppable.", she began without meeting his gaze.

"I thought I was protecting you.

"Master Sensei, once his own quality as a shikabane was discovered, told me of the nature of the Han. She was still-born, Stoppable-san. There was no way to communicate with the newborn shikabane. The only conclusion he could surmise is that she had an unquenchable thirst for life...like some other person we knew, Ron-kun.

"Sensei had already assured the mother of her child's placement in the Yaumanuchi adoption agency. With the shikabane appearing to grow normally, he knew he had some small time to come to a decision. What would give the shikabane's nature away was not the coldness of a corpse, as the infant would be kept warm by the parents that adopted her, but her abilities beyond a living child. In an attempt at mercy for the still born and her mother and at another lesson for you, he decided to allow your parents to adopt Hanna. This was before our induction to the Kougon sect.

"Only then did he make the connection between the Han and the Yono. Having the prophecy in hand, he felt he had made the correct decision. He saw no reason to reveal the secret when the Yono was contained anew. After all, it might reveal others who were dead and you considered ninja. Like himself.

"His feelings on it changed when I was bonded to you, Master Stoppable. Master Sensei knew you had to have a singular view of the corpses corrupted to reanimation. I knew you loved the monster you had come to regard as a sister. I decided that I would ask your forgiveness rather than your permission."

Ron sat down on the stoop.

Yori refused to let him lower himself below her, so she bowed from her kneeling position to keep her head beneath his.

"Is there any life left around me?", Ron asked her. "Is everyone now a corpse waiting to be killed? Do I just walk around and say 'that kid did a really cool flip, his father must have killed him by tossing him off a building'?"

"I am most sorry, Master Stoppable.", Yori reiterated.

"Sorry for what?", Ron replied with tears forming in his eyes. "Sorry that my sister's a monster? Or sorry that you tried to kill my sister expecting me to forgive you later? How about taking the advice of one of the shikabane we've already killed despite who he was to us? Or are you sorry that you're not marching me back in there to take out yet another regret-driven corpse just because you don't think you're the one in charge, despite the act is so cleansing it will get you into heaven?

"What am I supposed to do? Tell my parents to tell Rabbi Katz to schedule a fake funeral for a fake sister? Cover up the continuance of a monster in my home after returning three to the grave today?

"You don't even know what else I'm dealing with, do you?"

Yori touched her head to the ground in front of him. "I am deeply shamed, Master Stoppable. Punish me any way you see fit. I humble myself before you."

Ron lifted her back to kneeling by her shoulders. "Stop that!"

Yori remained silent, still taking care to not meet his gaze.

"Look at me.", Ron commanded.

Instantly she did so. The smoky black eyes of the corpse were just as alluring as when the living Yori met him at the airport in Japan.

"I. Am. Not. Mad. At. You.", the boy stated. "Well, maybe a little but that's only because I'm mad at all of this. The whole world's gone hay wire.

"I'm gonna deal with Hanna's...place on the mortal coil later. Let's just go to KP's, alright?"

2

The Possible house's garage automatically opened for the Sloth. Seeing the twins' brain scanner, Ron parked outside. Yori followed Ron into the house.

Kim came from the kitchen in a nearly too large terricloth bath robe, holding a glass of milk and clearing her throat. She saw Ron first. Then she saw the expression on his face. Part weight of the world, part tired and thankfully part happy to see her. The girl crashed into him and threatened to knock him over with a fierce hug.

The shikabane hime caught the glass without spilling a drop.

"Oh, Ron, you're alright.", Kim managed to sputter between the kisses she planted on him. "Global Justice. They sent Team Impossible after you. Are you alright?"

"You know me, KP.", Ron attempted while holding her as strongly as she held him.

"You ran away and your pants fell down?", she teased. Then she looked into his eyes. "You know what? Don't answer."

Kim took Ron by the wrist and raced up the stairs to her attic. Yori softly followed the couple into Kim's room, locking the trap door behind her.

"I missed you so much. That avatar thing you did is no match for the real thing.", Kim told her boyfriend.

Kim smiled mischievously and batted her eyes at him. "Maybe, I should get you out of these mission clothes and into something I can...lick?", she blushed.

Yori helped Kim pull his shirt over his head. Yori managed to guide the two living lovers to Kim's bed without them tripping over anything.

Ron tried to keep up with Kim's kisses as four female hands traversed his back.

"Do you even realize how little I'm wearing under this robe?", Kim asked. The girl held Ron on top of her with her left as her right hand guided his left to the bottom of the robe. She drove his hand up her leg until it disappeared under the cloth. He found nothing but more pale smooth skin covering toned muscle, even as his fingers ran against her belt from the inside.

Kim's eyes narrowed to slits rivaling Yori's, their private signal. "Don't stop there, Mr. Stoppable.", she encouraged.

Soon enough, Ron's hand had slipped under the robe's sash and cupped what he, and only he, could.

Kim could still breathe regularly enough to speak. "Yori, let's get these pants off him."

"It will be my honor.", his shikabane hime nodded. Kim held Ron to her. She counted the teeth that remained in his head after all the missions he supported her on using only her tongue. KP heard the thump of his utility belt, filled with the castaways of hers Wade had rendered obsolete. It was followed by the heavier thump of the reinforced titanium belt for his pants, her half-iversery gift: a terribly 'high-school' marking of how she felt about him. His girlfriend coaxed his tongue into her mouth and held it between her teeth as she smiled at finally feeling his leg's skin inside hers.

Kim freed her face from his and breathed mightily. The loosened robe fell apart, exposing all of the girl to the boy. She held his mouth to her skin, reveling in the fact that he wanted to explore her. She ran her fingers through his hair but not pushing; letting him run rampant in his typical, wild, enthusiastic, whimsical manner. Kim managed to wave her head, letting her flippy hair flip onto his right shoulder.

"That's right, Ron.", she reminded him. "All of me is yours to explore. To enjoy. I won cheer regionals. I was on the cover of Human. And all the world could do was guess about my hidden charms. I hid them because they're only for you. You're the only man I want, Ron."

Kim opened her eyes abruptly. "It seems you want me to."

She reached between them, to him, taking him...in her hand. She ran him through other red hair. "I want you to have me Ron. As many times as you want." The girl held him between the back of her robe and herself, nestling her body between himself, pressing her want against him. "Any where you want me, taking me."

KP strained to her left and took his right ear between her lips. And with muscles only an adventurer, a champion, a girl born of a mother before her could develop, she latched around him. Ron was left outside Kim by the barest of margins as her globes squeezed together, holding him tightly, massaging him like he never imagined.

The girl rubbed her legs wherever she could without letting him out of her grasp. Her hands ran all over him, only occasionally flowing over Yori's. Her tongue tasted him. He ran his tongue over her. She moaned to him every time he squeezed her, pulled at her, stroked her against him. Kim took up all of his senses and she meant to homestead.

When he began to buck against her, she rolled him over. Kim's hair caught the midday sun and lit up around her. Yori pulled the white robe off her. But when Ron opened his hungry eyes, he only saw his angel.

Kim's hands continued what her backside could not. "You know where this is going to end up, right, Ron?" She ran one hand over the very bottom of her abdomen. "Yep. Right here. You're gonna make me plump when you fill me and I'm gonna like it. I want to glow for you. I want to give you everything Ron. You are my everything Ron. Won't you give a little to your KP? Won't you make her so happy? She wants it so much."

And then Kim was covered in more than just sweat and Yori's wandering fingers. The red head kept working Ron until he was truly spent. She turned away only for a moment, before sliding to lay her back against him. She carefully brought Ron's hands to her breasts and spooned with her boyfriend, smiling as pleasantly as he did.

"It will be my honor to clean you.", Yori told Kim. Then the corpse' tongue was at work.

Ron jerked with a start. "KP, you didn't/"

"Don't think about that.", Kim cut him off. "You needed it. I'm-a just a-glad that I could give it to ya."

The boy smirked. "And all our talk about saving ourselves?"

Kim smirked along with him. "Technically...And besides, when the love of my life is the man I spent the last 14 years with and will spend the rest with, then I saved myself pretty good, if you ask me.", she told him in self satisfaction.

Her well muscled abdomen flicked some of Ron onto Yori's face as Kim coughed.

"Sorry.", she explained. "I just had this tickle in the back of my throat ever since I got back for Global Justice. The more I swallow, the further down it seems to go. And with mom at work, my best idea was that glass of milk."

A well sated Yori looked into her eyes. "It will be my honor to make you some honeyed tea. Please, join me in the kitchen whenever Stoppable-san is ready."

The shikabane ran her hands over Ron's hands and Kim breasts as she leaned into to place a peck on Kim's lips. Kim returned the kiss, then ran her lips over Yori's. The red head used a hand to steady Yori's face and finally Yori parted her lips to let Kim's tongue chase what Yori had swallowed.

Kim smiled at her, "We'll be right down."

3

Ron sat in the breakfast nook, Kim comfortably nestled under his left arm and Yori holding his right hand.

Kim took a sip of the tea and cleared her throat again. "Thank you, Yori."

Yori only nodded.

"How did you know about Team Impossible?", Ron asked.

Kim livened. "Well, you know how we split up so I could call in favors while you went after Drakken? I thought Dr. Director and Global Justice would know all about this U.N. stuff. Turns out they did. Every country in the world couldn't care less about Drakken and Shego, we even got a preemptive pardon from the President...which I didn't know you could do. But to back up their 'save the world, earn a pardon' policy, they told Global Justice to get on the case. Will, in his infinite wisdom, sicc'ed Team Impossible on you and tried to arrest me. Disarmed an assault rifle, hotwired a hoverjet, yadda yadda yadda I came home and worried about you like a house-wife."

Ron snickered at the thought of Kim in a pink apron, oven mitts and a face-full of 1950s make-up. "Yeah, and I'll come home mad that your famous one-noodle, still dehydrated spaghetti isn't on the table."

Kim glared at him. "It's not funny. I was really worried. What happened?"

"He showed himself to be a clever, courageous savior of the world. Again.", Yori replied with a squeeze of Ron's hand.

"Let Ron talk.", Kim commanded. "I like listening to him."

"I apologize.", Yori corrected herself.

Kim sat up, placed her chin on her hands to look like the typical boy-obsessed teenage girl. "So what happened?", she asked again.

"Well, first I set up the whole Senior thing.", Ron explained. "I figured that we don't need villain drama on top of the whole shikabane thing, let alone an angry U.N. And Senior's not malis...malev...really evil, just looking for his next kick out of life. I talked him into monster hunting, so now he's backing us as long as I throw a piece of the action his way. Junior and Bonnie are still just Junior and Bonnie, though."

"The Ultimate Monkey Master saved another soul.", Yori embellished.

"Hush, you.", Kim said with a smile. She gave the hand Yori had on top of Ron's a squeeze and nodded for Ron to continue.

"Next...", Ron began. Then he looked into Kim's eyes. KP's eyes.

"Man, I didn't want to do this.", he said. "I still don't. But I'll never hide anything from you, KP. I swear it.

"Two days ago, I went into the future."

"The...future?", Kim asked.

"It was just after I got of your shower.", Ron continued.

Yori's eyes widened. "When your love of Possible-sama doubled."

"Yeah, that was a trip.", Ron replied. "I had to hide in the shower Past-Me had just stepped out so I would go with Rufus 3000, the highly evolved, time travelling, naked mole rat of the post-apocalyptic future."

Rufus, having finished his tea and lounging in the still warm mug, raised his head quizzically.

"You heard me.", Ron admonished.

"Now, KP...I didn't want to tell you, because I didn't want that future to come true. I thought I could change it."

Kim looked into his insistent brown eyes. She believed him when he burst into prom ranting about kid's meals toys wrecking havoc. She even knew before he told her that Bonnie threw herself at him that one time. "Okay. You went forward in time to the future. What had happened?"

"Well, it was all like Terminator meets tie-die. I did not like it!", Ron answered.

Yori giggled. The two teens looked at her, trying to determine what she could possibly be laughing at. The ninja started counting on her fingers. "Well-it-was-all-like; Ter-mi-na-tor-meets-tie-die; I-did-not-like-it. It's a haiku."

The shikabane looked between the two living. "You and your American-style rap songs. But please, Master Stoppable, continue."

"Al...righty-then.", Ron nodded. "Rufus 3000 took me to a grave yard. It was as far as the eye could see and bathed in all these weird colors. Yori was chained at my headstone. Future-Yori and Rufus told me that Global Justice and the Kougon sect had been destroyed. Then she ate Rufus."

Rufus' interest turned into an interest in self-preservation. He tipped the mug over and prepared to bolt.

"Future-Yori, not our Yori.", Ron reminded his pet.

Rufus shrugged his forelegs and gave a sharp chirp.

Ron turned to Yori. "That's why I forbade you from eating people."

Yori nodded. Then she countered, "But you stated that Rufus 3000 was a naked mole rat. Perhaps you should change that command to 'Do not eat Rufus'?"

"Say, that's smart.", Ron admitted. "Consider that changed."

"But don't go around eating people, all the same.", Kim added.

Yori hid her disappointment.

"Future-Monkey Fist turned up next. Only, in the future, he was mellow. 3000 had said that time couldn't be undone, and that I could only save the future world. But Monkey Fist showed up with this Temple Similar and said that magic was a different set of rules than science. I could go back in time and change things but I couldn't take the little statue back with me."

"Because you would have the statue in the past before Fist could acquire it.", Yori surmised.

"Yeah.", Ron agreed. "And that's why I freed Monkey Fist. So I could see if he had that Temper Simpler."

"Hai.", Yori nodded.

"You were chasing after Monkey Fist?", Kim asked. "But what about Drakken."

"He proved his love for you.", Yori stated. "We destroyed four shikabane: the Yono r.i.p. Master Umbutu, Shego r.i.p. Shelia Go, Dr. Drakken r.i.p. Drew Theodore Polomious Lipsky, and the Monkey Ninjas who turned out to collectively be a late servant of Lord Fiske."

"Wow, you were busy.", Kim said. "It makes me treasure the time you spent coming to me all the more."

Kim leaned over and kissed Ron.

Ron rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "Well, it wasn't quite as easy as that. Team Impossible jumped us when we went to Big Daddy Brotherson to get the locations of who Senior thought could be shikabane. We ended up fighting them and messing up a Global Justice hoverjet."

Yori giggled behind her free hand. "You and your American-style modesty. Master Stoppable walked between bullets with ease to show his mastery over the mercenaries. He utilized the hoverjet to save the world from the damned, as those three would waste it chastising their savior."

"Omigod!", Kim blurted out. "Ron!"

Ron rubbed her back and gave Yori a quick glare before pulling Kim in for another kiss. "I'm alright now. Don't worry. And did I flip out over your yadda-ing over 'disarm an assault rifle'? Everything turned out alright. Even Team Imp should be up and at 'em by now."

Kim rolled her head on her shoulders, considering it. Then she forgave him. "You're lucky you're cute.

"So what else was in the future? Of course! You said Yori was chained to your grave. You only had a grave because you were out of the time stream. But I remember you panicking over separating the team and making sure I wouldn't blame Yori."

"But we're all here now, together. Right? See Ron. You did change the past."

Ron took a deep breath. "That wasn't all.

"The world was in that shape because of one person...a shikabane. All three of them told me the same story. This shikabane was all powerful. The sky was painted with its memories. Fist said half the world was dead."

"We should seek this monster immediately.", Yori declared.

Ron shook his head. "The shikabane was you, KP. You died. And I don't know how.

"That's why I wanted to change the future so bad. Why I didn't just go after Drakken and Shego and took the time to go to the Yoni and D. and Castle Fiske. I wanted to get my hands on that time monkey statue so that I could change what would happen to you, KP."

Kim shook her head. "But it's alright now, Ron. The team is together, so Yori won't be chained anywhere, right? Global Justice can't touch us, so maybe a bridge is burned. But Dr. Director will probably put it as water under the bridge once I wave a federal pardon in her face and point out Drakken and Shego will finally leave the world alone. Rufus is right here as primitive as can be."

Rufus squeaked.

"Sorry.", Kim told him before continuing. "You can have Wade call the Kougon sect right now. And the only thing wrong with me is nothing a little of Yori's tea won't fix. I'll have all the time in the world to make good on my promise to love you all over your perfectly healthy body with my perfectly healthy body."

Then her blood splashed on Ron. Kim Possible's carcass was torn open from her neck all the way down to the bottom of her ribcage. Her aorta, heart and both lungs hung loosely against the exposed bone and muscle. Her esophagus was exploded from the inside and her larynx flopped uselessly. Her face was upside down and pointed away from Ron.

On the table before them, stood Mego. He smelled mostly of bile, somewhat of blood, and slightly of honeyed lemon tea.


	13. 8 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

Author's Note: For the Kim Possible fans that haven't seen a lick of Shikabane Hime:Aka or Kuro, the entire premise is laid out in ep 13 at ~6:40

1

Mego moved to turn on the table and found that he could not. Yori's grasp bounced in mid air as a blue sphere leaped into existance for a moment before becoming transparent again. Ron spilled out from the breakfast nook under the table. Only when he was standing in the middle of the kitchen did he see Jim's hand over a red button above the counter. A red button installed by the twins themselves after one too many rocket launches, fusion experiments and precisely three seperate attempts to subvert the laws of thermodynamics.

Dr. James Timothy Possible followed the twins into the kitchen. Upon seeing Mego, he started to remind Ronald how he felt about show folk. Then he saw the remnants of his daughter's cardiovascular system.

The larger man shoved the boy into the refrigerator. "You were supposed to watch over her, Ronald. You were supposed to keep my Kimmie-cub safe. Answer me!"

"Amp down, dad." Kim attempted to calm her father.

All eyes in the room turned to what should have been a corpse. Well, in a sense, was a corpse. That corpse was busy holding its esophagus together so it could fuse back together. It pushed the veins and arteries back to its aorta and heart, misaligning only in one easily corrected instance. Its larynx nearly found its lungs on its own. When the nimble fingers felt around the chest cavity and found everything in place, it folded its rib cage back into place. Using both hands, the head was pulled up to right the neck's attachment. After an ackward silence, the only evidence of Kim Possible's explosion was the corpse' perky breasts revealed through its torn shirt and snapped brasier.

Tim and Jim gawked openly at their reformed sister. Kim gave them a weird look. Then she looked down at herself. "Tw'eebs!", she growled while clutching her torn garment together with both hands.

"Kimmie-cub?", the shocked father asked. "But...you were..."

"No big.", Kim told him. "Anything's possible for a Possible: even coming back from the dead.

"I have got to get back to my room. I am not going to risk flashing my father and brothers again."

With that, the girl stood in her seat and passed straight through the containment field that held the shikabane.

The man still gaped. "How did...the force field..."

Kim stalled on her path. "I can do anything!", she said cheerfully. She then continued up to her room.

Ron bolted over to Yori. He snatched the ribbon out of her hair, letting it fall into her face. With a spin worthy of the homecoming game, he was at a counter cabinet. "Marker...marker...come on...marker...got it!"

While he seached, the twins started speaking over each other. "You know this is a blow torch and pipe situation." "Nuhuh. We're gonna fry this guy up under a microwave laser." "How about we quantum destabilize his atomic nuclei?"

Dr. Possible stopped the two. "I won't hear any of that talk out of you two. Your mother's a nuerosurgeon. She'll decide how best to torture your sister's murderer before I send him into deep space."

"Aw!", in stereo.

Ron jumped until he was planted in a crouch on the ceiling, clearing Kim's father. He pushed off and just managed to grasp the door frame back into the house with one hand, holding his two items in the other. Swinging, he propelled himself after what was left of the love of his life.

He found KP holding various shirts in front of her. "I really liked how that shirt went with these slacks.", she mused.

"Ron, which one of these do thing matches best?"

"KP.", Ron started. "KP...do you realize what happened?"

"Of course, Ron.", she said in that not nearly as annoyed as she sounded tone of voice. "Mego snuck into my throat and exploded me from the inside out, murdering me instantly. So not the drama.

"Now help me pick out a shirt."

Ron stood silently while the corpse before him mused. He let out a breath. He set the marker and ribbon on her vanity. Taking up a random t-shirt, he carefully pulled it over the dead girl's head. With a gentle stroke, he pushed her hair back into place. His genuine concern and somber expression met a sunny smile.

"What?", Kim asked.

Ron looked downward. "Do you trust me, KP?"

"You're fully of silly questions.", Kim's corpse told him. "You're my BFBF. And partner. Of course I trust you."

"I'm gonna ask you to...to wear something.", Ron continued. "It's only going to be for a little while. And I really need you to do it. It might...oh, I don't know what it might feel like. But it's really important. So will you wear it?"

Kim's corpse grinned. "You never get me clothes, even, you know, lacy things. Just put it on me. But don't say daddy didn't warn you about the black hole."

Ron held her right hand with his left. Using only his right, he spread out the ribbon. On it, he wrote 'I Ron Stoppable bind the shikabane of Kim Possible'.

"Say, Ron.", the corpse he held said. "Now that I'm dead, I'm gonna start losing body temperature. We never did actually do 'it'. Do you wanna before I'm cold and reheated artificially?"

Ron wrapped the newly inked ribbon around Kim's right wrist. Instantly, the corpse stilled and fell into his arms. The room was earily silent. The previous cheerful expression vanished leaving only a blank.

Now he held his dead KP in his arms. Now, he cried.

When the boy finally carried the world famous heroine's limp corpse into the living room, he came face to face with Yori. The shikabane gently poked him. Ron raised an eyebrow. "I apologize, Stoppable-san.", she told him. "I just had to check."

The twins milled through a pile of technology, gizmos and detritus. Tim touched Jim with one and Jim screamed like a cat in a deep fryer. Jim shared Tim's smile and they placed the device with a few others in a much smaller pile.

"Ronald.", Mr. Dr. Possible gained attention. "About earlier...I...well, it's not like Kimmie-cub is actually dead/"

"Yes she is.", Ron told him. "And that makes this last favor I'm going to ask you for that much more of an insult to this family. I've already destroyed this home, bringing this fight into KP's life. And I need to ask you one final thing.

"Yori...she gets to go to heaven when she ends 108 shikabane. You have one contained in your kitchen. Please find it in your hearts to tell Yori how to crush that force field on him."

The man gaped at Ron. Ron only spoke more forcefully.

"I know how much you want to tear that...thing apart. I can taste Mrs. Dr. P going just straight up Nazi on it.

"But Kim fought her whole life to help people. Even a big eared fool that ran his mouth in a nursery school play ground. I can't imagine she would want her family to turn into the people she's been saving the world from."

Ron brushed a lock of hair from Kim's face. "I...I really think she would still want to help people. Only Yori could be helped by ending that thing. Please let her."

Kim's father nodded and placed a hand on Ronald's shoulder. "Boys? Show the young lady how to work the containment field.

"And Ronald...don't say 'last favor'. My little girl is still gonna need looking after. You'll always be welcome in our home."

"No I won't.", Ron told him without looking at the man. "I've got to bring her to Japan. I'll...I'll...heh. I'll still have her back, Mr. Dr. P."

"Is there enough time to wait until my wife gets here?", the rocket scientist asked. "She deserves a chance to say good-bye."

Ron seemed to be weighed down even heavier by the question. "I don't know. I don't want to wait and be wrong though."

"She'll understand.", Mr. Dr. P stated.

Ron did not reply.

Two fuming twins followed Yori from the kitchen. Ron saw the boys, stewing. Revenge? Gone. Their sister? Here in his arms, a wild chance at a better place if he hurried and another Mego didn't get in a lucky shot. And what was he going to do for them? Besides just steal the entire sitch' from them. What would this do to two hyper geniuses? Wade would...know.

Wade. No. He wouldn't think about that. Not now.

He hadn't even heard Yori. "I'm sorry. What?"

"Target silenced, Master Stoppable.", Yori told Ron.

Ron nodded. "Then it's time to go. Good-bye."

Ron carried KP's corpse to her Sloth. Only a slight flexing of its fingers let her re-animation be known. Yori opened the front passenger door to let Ron settle Kim in the seat. Ron got in the driver's side and immediately set off the horn by laying his head on it. It blew for seconds until Yori pulled on his shoulder from the rear seat.

"Are you alright to fly, Ron-kun?", she asked now that they were alone.

"Yeah.", Ron told her. "I can fly. I can do anything."

2

Ron carried KP's 'bound' form up a stairwell of the Kougon sect's head temple with Yori following softly behind. No matter how many stairs he climbed, he never tired. No matter how many layers of mission gear and monk's robes he wore, he never sweated. His feet tirelessly brought him up the sky scraper.

Yori followed softly behind him. Her black ninjutsu combat gi was brightened by the overlay of a white ceremonial shikabane hime robe. While nearly all of the monks they passed wore the blue robes Ron bore, none of the young girls that followed a few wore this robe. In fact, they seemed to either wear school uniforms or night-club fashions for women twice their age.

Kim lay in Ron's arms as if she was simply asleep. Her purple and black mission outfit certainly made it appear as if a particularly difficult mission just plumb tuckered her out. It was only Yori's ribbon and the Phoenetic alphabet script that showed she was actually 'contained'.

When Ron came out of the stair well, he nearly bumped into a woman dressed in an amalgamation of summer clubbing clothes, nurses shoes and a shikabane hime's robe. The woman was accompanied by a girl that appeared to be still in grammar school. The girl was downing enough junk food to be either very poorly raised or thoroughly deceased, depending on just how heavy the massive hammer she carried actually was.

"Gon-Sho-Soju Stoppab-e", the woman began in Japanese. "Um...congratulations on your first victory."

"I don't exactly have time for the false compliment, really a complaint right now.", Ron told her. "So I'll let you know that we've taken out seven and we'll be on our way, thank you very much."

"Eight, Stoppable-san.", Yori corrected.

"No you didn't.", the little girl countered.

Annoyed teen eyes settled on her. The dyed-blonde child carried on. "Even I only got one in my first month and I'm bonded to _her_. Sure, maybe yours got lucky. But eight? You already had people impressed. Don't go messing that up by lying, American."

"Saki!", the woman admonished. "I am sorry, Stoppa...bel. But she does have a point. If you do wish to embellish, perhaps three would be ludicrous enough to make your point."

Yori's eyes narrowed. "Dr. Renton, Hego, Mas/"

"Let's go, Yori.", Ron told her.

Yori nodded, bowed swiftly to the woman and sped softly after Ron.

The girl shoved more chips in her mouth from the foods she was carrying and balanced the ornate metal hammer she held. "But Rika! You know as well as I that there's no way/"

"Unless Todoroki-sama is no longer the strongest shikabane hime.", Rika told her.

"No.", the girl continued to object. "If she actually managed to get eight in what? A week? That would make her the most powerful one of us in...forever."

The woman nodded. "There is an American saying. Records exist to be broken."

Ron no longer paid attention to the two. He was at the office of the person he came to see. "Sojo Takime!"

A man in brown monks robes stood next to a girl in a tight white business shirt, black tie and maroon miniskirt that barely hid the top of long black silk stockings. The two turned toward the door and while the monk's eyes seemed to darken the girl's glasses seemed to reflect all light and become white ovals.

"You can return to your task, Kamika.", Takime told his personal shikabane hime.

The girl continued facing the three teens for a moment. Then another. "Right, Sojo.", she said.

The girl hopped a few meters straight up to the balcony of the office. The office was quite something in space limited Japan, with bright windows behind a solid wood desk and plenty of furniture to hold an informal conference. But its crown was a balcony library. Sure there were shelves for books on the first floor of the room. But the entire wall from one side of the windows wrapping around to the other were solid tomes and scrolls. Kamika Todoroki returned to pulling out books and dusting them.

She was completely unhindered by the twin katanas she bore in a leather holster as 'the Sword Princess'.

"How may I help you, Gon-Sho-Soju Stoppable?", Sougen Takime asked. "It must not be all that pressing if you did not telephone and took the time to come to Japan."

Yori took a step back at the wash of emotion from Ron. The corpse went next to the window and started to examine the books on a nearby shelf.

Ron didn't waste time. "I need her made into a shikabane hime. She's bound just like step one. Then I flew her here as fast as I could."

"We are not in the business of raising those who have passed on, Guardian.", the man told him. "If she has not risen as shikabane, you should simply be grateful."

"She's already risen.", the boy confirmed.

The monk smiled comfortingly and drew near. "And you bound her. But even the most potent binding, with the most delicate calligraphy and highest rank would not render a shikabane 100 percent immobile."

Takime opened Kim's eyes and attempted to show Ron that she was simply dead. But when he moved one eye, the other slowly followed. The monk shook his head. He pushed her eyelids all the way up. They slowly came back down to flutter over her eyes.

"Who bound this girl?", he asked.

"I did.", Ron restated. "She was kil/"

The sojo cut him off again. "Do I...know this girl?"

"She's saved the world a few times. She's Kim Possible.", the boy told him.

The monk rapidly turned to his coffee table. Last month's issue of Humans was still on it, with a sassy photo of the world saving teen with Ron nearly photobombing in the background.

"You're actually _that_ Ronald Stoppable?", the man asked.

"Nevermind that.", Ron said. "You have to bind her to me."

"Perhaps we should sit down.", Takime suggested.

The man sat in a chair and directed Ron to the couch. Ron sat down, but hastily started speaking again. "Okay. Maybe I came on a bit too gruff for you Japanese types. I know I seem even more talky in Asia than I am back home.

"But look. KP's risen. She hasn't killed anyone (Yori got the murdering shikabane), she's younger than Yori by maybe as much as a year and she's female. Hook me up. Literally. We need to get her bonded to me so I can take this ribbon off her."

"With the English written on it?", the monk disbelieved.

"Alright. I will arrange to have her bonded. She'll be assigned a competent soldier monk. We don't have any veteran contracted monks available. But don't worry. I'll find someone who has excelled in their training."

"What?", Ron asked. "No, I'll do it. I know what I'm doing. From what that lady said in the hall, me and Yori have been laying the smack down. She didn't even believe that we had taken out eight."

The monk shook his head. "Stoppable-san. What you are asking is not only impossible but inappropriate. A monk contracted to two shikabane hime would give up twice the rune through his bonds. It would kill you."

"Nu-uh!", Ron demanded. "You said I would have to have it going on to bind her as much as I did. And I got the Mystical Monkey Power flowing through me, that's gotta count for something, right?

"Besides, the dude who you tried to have train me was bonded to two shikabane hime."

Takime shook his head softly. "You misunderstand Kanechika Umehara. He was bonded to Touma. He is bonded to 'Flesh'. And he has been training himself for a great number of years. He is not a boy who feels the need to claim eight shikabane over the course of his first three days. I do not understand the slang of 'Mystical Monkey Power', but I assure you it is not great enough to alter the truth."

Ron shook his head. He stroked KP's chin.

"Look, dude. I can pay, alright. I can drum up...let's see...three hundred and eighty million dollars. It's gotta be expensive running this place. How about it? I can throw in, like, a bunch of stocks and bonds and stuff too. Just bind KP to me, okay."

Kamika alighted from the balcony. Yori intercepted her approach of the two living. "Senior Shikabane Hime Kamika Todoruki. Will you please explain to me the value of the particular volumes that are here by the window please?"

The blonde looked to the two males still conversing and seated. "It would be my honor and privledge to do so, Junior Shikabane Hime Yori..., er, Yori."

Takime frowned. "Contracted Monk Gon-Sho-Soju Ronald Stoppable. You have done an admirable service in bringing a potentially great weapon to us. As a shikabane hime, Kim Possible can do much to uphold our sect's ideologies. But as your Soju, I feel I must render some advice.

"Do not continue with this frivolous request. You must let go your personal feelings, otherwise you risk holding regrets to your heart."

"I don't care about my having regrets.", Ron told him. "I'm not giving you KP! Now I'm killing your shikabane all around the world, even though no one seems to believe that. I thought doing exactly what you want done would garner a little respect around here, but now you're telling me that I'm a liar and Yori can't be half as close to going to heaven as she is. And I'm suppose to just let you give KP to some...some...someone like you?"

The monk leaned forward. Todoruki's left hand dropped to her top katana. Yori struggled to keep Ron's tidally strong emotions off her face.

Sougen Takime spoke very carefully. "There is always the other option, Gon-Sho-Soju. We can return her to the grave she refused."

Ron stood up with Kim's corpse still in his arms. "So not funny dude."

Kamika walked toward her contracted monk. She only stopped at Yori's voice.

"Oops.", Yori called out to the room. The ninja held the solid oak desk off the floor with one arm. Once Takime and his shikabane hime were looking at her, she tossed it out the large windows. Glass and desk blew out from the building to litter across unknown pedestrians below. "Did I do that?"

The two frowned and took a step towards the disrobing shikabane. Then they remembered Ron. He was already standing on the side of the room by the time they turned. As they approached straight at him, he was given a clear shot to the end zone- the now missing windows. The boy bolted toward them.

Yori ignited the previously hidden jet pack that Kim had always used on her missions. She flew out the window. Ron tossed Kim out the window and jumped. He tore off his badly tied robe and ignited his own jet pack, catching the corpse of his girl friend in mid air.

The 'Katana Hime' frowned when she got to the empty space the three had flown out of. She drew both katanas and raised them over her head, breathing in an unneeded breath in preparation. Takime placed a hand on her shoulder and she glared at him. He raised a questioning eyebrow. She nodded and slowly exhaled.

"We must report this development with the ninja.", the girl said.

"My desk is seventeen floors from where it should be.", Takime lamented. "I believe we can consider this reported. What we need to do is plot a response."

Ron carefully held Kim to himself. He pulled the ribbon free from her wrist and tucked it into his now exposed utility belt.

She gave him a cheerful smile. Then she lamented, "Oh no. Your robe. What happened to it?"

Ron frowned. "I don't think I'll be needing it anymore."


	14. And Justice for Me

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Will Du opened his eyes. He was in the infirmary, surrounded by Team Impossible. As he came to, they started to celebrate. But his glare silenced them.

"The medic's recommendations to the patient?", he requested in a whisper.

The chief medical officer appeared from nowhere as he usually did. "Agent Du:while you have a bruised throat there did not seem to be any permanent damage to your trachea or thyroid gland. The same could be said about your cranial event, no permanent damage detected. You were kept sedated as to not stress your injuries until the proper scans could be completed.

"It is my honor to inform you that your health has returned to the pinnacle it was."

"Domo arigato, isha.", Will thanked in the physician's native Japanese.

The doctor stepped back into the background from which he came.

Will regarded Team Impossible and sighed. "You may continue."

All smiles, the group celebrated Du's revival. "Welcome back, sir." "Glad to see you're finally loafing off. Now maybe somebody else can gun for that employee of the month."

Will simply raised an eyebrow. "Report. Has Mr. Stoppable been apprehended?"

Team Impossible immediately stood at attention. "Sir...Dr. Director has suspended that mission. We're assigned to the recapture of Cammile Leon, now."

"Really?", Du asked rhetorically. "Then I have the responsibility to receive these orders directly from Dr. Director."

2

"That is correct, Agent.", Dr. Director told him.

"Permission to speak freely?", Will Du requested.

The woman behind her office's desk waved her hand, resigned to another speech.

"Cammile Leon is an international criminal at large." The Global Justice top agent started his speech with a concession, exactly as he had been trained to do. "However, the authorization for her recapture comes from a general interpretation of a previous authorization. The arrest of Kimberly Anne Possible and her accomplice Ronald Jeremiah Stoppable are under the auspices of United Nations Resolution 1901. Any reassigning of assets to other, _lesser_ priorities is more than inadvisable.

"Any officer, including commanders of the agency, caught in such strange reasoning should be investigated."

Betty Director raised her eyebrow at him. "Haven't we had this conversation about questioning my reasoning before, Will."

Agent Du paused for a moment. "I cannot conceive of any possible reasoning that explains, let alone justifies, such a blatant disregard for the letter of issuance or the spirit of our commission. I am simply trying to interpret orders in absolute compliance with such in a professional manner. To do otherwise is to invite the same disastrous fate as the very targets me and my subordinates had been previously assigned. Amateur antics such as there must be stopped, and now that Resolution 1901 has been passed...I see only a clear path of action."

"And that's what you must learn before becoming commander, Will.", Dr. Director told him. "There is a difference between executing a mission, as efficiently and with reg's as you most often do, and understanding the subtleties and costs of prioritizing. Camille is a task that will be handled fairly quickly. Team Impossible was tossed around by a single element of Team Possible. We don't even know who exactly their latest recruit is, only that she's exceptionally dangerous. Prudence, no matter how effective, is never written in literal manuals and regulations."

Will narrowed his eyes beyond his Han heritage. "And so I am to understand that this reassignment of Team Impossible is to stand?"

Betty sighed. "Yes, Agent Du. Your objection is duly noted.

"Dismissed."

Agent Du grimaced, then swallowed his distaste back down. "Yes, ma'am."

He saluted, executed a drill precision about face and exited her office.

3

How could Dr. Director, Betty be so absolutely casual? Anyone who had reached her position should not only understand but love regulations as much as he did.

Rules set the world right. With everyone knowing exactly what was wrong and what was right, there could be order. The child soldiering and genocide in the Rwandan civil war were against the four articles of the Geneva Conventions. There's no semantically and arbitrarily trusted person advising to 'look within one's heart' and 'see what's right'. It was right there on the internet so that there could be no misinterpretation. Forced marriages between elder men and child brides within countries like Saudi Arabia weren't internationally outlawed, therefore had to be considered legal no matter how it offended even his own personal sensibilities. Rules exist. A person's judgment was whimisical.

And that's what he hated so much about Team Possible's commander. No matter how much of the world hailed the teen, it was still arbitrarily personal. All of her aid was up to her own shifting moral code. As an American girl, age 14-21, from the state of Colorado, there was a 87% probability that she would condemn a superior officer fraternizing sexually with a subordinate was wrong...until she considered her own relationship with her sidekick. Now, that the U.N. had declared her in violation of international law by utilizing procedures allowed by that law, he was to stand down? To let this amateur cavort about in her immorality, as clearly defined by the rules? Is this what his parents abided by the dictates of the People's Republic of China for? So that he could be raised exactly within the parameters of the state, so his inevitable assignment to Global Justice could credit the permanent member of the Security council with his _inaction_?

He swore to himself that the would arrest every amateur that ever declared itself an element of Team Possible. Every last unprofessional, untrained, unauthorized one of them. Even if it meant coming back from his grave, hell or the void to report back.

Frustrations like this nearly blinded him.

And that's why he never noticed that he had walked into an unclear transport tube. When the capsule came back it decelerated on his head. The concussion was nothing in comparison to the actual skull fracture. The skull fracture was nothing in comparison to the ripple fracture of his spine, and the disassembly of his ribcage. His internal organs were hopelessly crushed as his body turned in on itself, internal bleeding becoming a misnomer. All in all, twelve immediately fatal wounds were inflicted on what was left of the agent as his body snapped back into the transport hub's room.

4

Will Du opened his eyes. He was in the infirmary, surrounded by Team Impossible. As he came to, they started to celebrate. But his glare silenced them.

"The medic's recommendations to the patient?", he requested in a whisper.

The same doctor stood over him, glancing back and forth between several charts and a flat lined cardiogram.

"Uh...", the doctor attempted. "Sir, you're as healthy as I can determine. None of the extremely deadly injuries the trauma crew diagnosed you with are evident. You don't even seem affected with the hastily overdosed morphine drip. Even if you had managed to survive, you probably should have been euthanized by that alone.

"It would be my honor to have you cough."

Will felt the cold metal of the stethescope press against his chest. He coughed once, exactly as he did in his last mandated physical that had been performed as punctually as other assigned orders had been allowed. He was perfectly in sync when the physician checked his other lung.

The doctor smiled grimly. "I can't detect an adequate reason to keep you from the duty roster. If I could examine you at length/"

"We have already been assigned our tasks, doctor.", Global Justice' top agent, Will Du, stated in crystal clear English. "Regulations should tell you that your scientific curiosity is not a higher priority than the agency's apprehension of declared criminals. Regulations should tell exactly how to reprimand the trauma agent that _out of his own personal kindness_ attempted to _put me out of my misery_ against the dicates of my completed and filed living will./"

"But you were in a million pieces!", the doctor protested.

Du continued. "Regulations should tell you exactly how to requisition a functional cardiographer, so that you may difinitively resolve the health of those in your care. Regulations should extol the virtues of upholding protocol by not interrupting superior officers. My professional reccomendation to you, doctor, is that what regulations should do, they actually do. Remember that throughout your career and you may still keep it."

"Permission to speak freely?", the doctor requested.

"Denied.", Will Du said with all the emotion of a calculator.

The man waited patiently as the heart monitoring sensors were taken off his chest and the cardiographer correctly stated the error that it was no longer connected to a patient. Will then solemnly dressed in uniform exactly to the specifications in its maintenance guide. When he strode out of the infirmary, Team Impossible locked into step with him.

"Welcome back, sir.", Crash congratulated an impossible recovery.

Will glared at the sentimental display with disdain, but not so much that it overstepped protocol. "Thank you.", he stated exactly as he had been trained by his etiquette tutors. "It is good to be back."

"So are we going to go after Possible, again?", Burn inquired.

"Negative, as not assigning all our resources to the recapture of Leon, Camille would be against orders.", Will told him. "The only way Possible, Kimberly and Stoppable, Ronald will be reference for the duration of this mission is if they a) interfere with our apprehension of Leon, Cammile or b) become a resource toward said apprehension."

"Oh.", Burn replied.

"So I, as your duly sworn and appointed superior officer, hereby order you to listen very carefully for our plan of action in her arrest that will involve Team Possible with the utmost attention.", Will commanded.

"Glad to have you back, sir."

5

The physician that had seemed to be working on Will Du all day walked above the Global Justice complex, seemingly getting some fresh air. He strode along in the forest that covered the land the base was buried beneath. When he arrived at a certain tree, he leaned his back against it.

"A disturbing development occurred today.", he said to no one in particular in his native Japanese. "GJ's top agent, Will Du, survived a lethal injury. Or at least seemed to do so. While his breath remains under his control, his heart does not beat. Also, his passion for bearueacracy seems to have become his only and defining passion."

The doctor nodded. "I could not keep him contained in the infirmary without resorting to more...clandestine methods. However, the similarities to Yori-chan's case are enormous. I thought that the Ultimate Monkey Master should be made aware of the development, considering the path he has chosen to walk."

The man righted himself in preparation to leave. "But of course. Why else would Yamaunouchi graduate its practitioners if not to infiltrate the other organizations that utilize our skill set?"

The shadow of the tree he had leaned against seemed to lighten, as if something had left it.


	15. Pink Slip

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

The girls sat on a couch together. The youngest...er, shortest(?) sat on one end and stuffed her face while an ornate, heavy hammer leaned against the sofa. Next to her, a bubbly buxom bimbo appeared more apt to drool or suggestively touch her lips than pay attention. A calmer, demure girl with a large bow shaped like a flower sat at the opposite end of the couch. Todoroki sat on the arm, allowing her katanas to hang freely.

All kept their eyes glued to the plasma screen televising the meeting of monks that they were bonded to but considered too 'defiled' to attend. Just like every other shikabane hime in the tower.

2

The monks were arranged in their most formal position, reserved only for sect wide meetings. Sitting above the entirety of the Kougon sect was Dai-Sojo Kamiu, serenely observing everything in under his enlightened presence. Directly under him in his erected watch tower was Gon-Dai-Sojo Mibu, recently given full charge of the less spiritual responsibilities after aptly performing...more unsavory services through the recent trying times of the sect. Before them (and nearly every other member of the sect that could attend) were the six Sojo, including one Ron Stoppable's commanding officer Sougen Takamine.

The other five Sojo tore into him.

"With a psychotic American betraying our sect, with two shikabane no less, why should we trust the judgment of the Sojo to whom's district they were assigned?", the bald one asked.

"It would be a mistake to underestimate Ronald Stoppable as psychotic.", Takamine replied.

"So you believe that a child attached to a corpse that felt the need to lie about his accomplishments is mentally healthy?", another asked.

"What untruths are these?", the Dai-Sojo asked calmly.

Takamine bowed his head. "Dai-Sozu Ronald Stoppable claimed that his shikabane hime Yori had returned eight shikabane in the first three days of her death."

The Dai-Sojo tilted his head. "How did you determine that he was being deceitful?"

"The claim was outrageous!", came the response from another Sojo.

"As outrageous as the dead moving among us because of their regrets?", the enlightened one continued.

Silence followed.

The Dai-Sojo continued. "And you inquired after the support the newly commissioned monk came to Japan to acquire before relaying your opinion?"

"No, Dai-Sojo.", Takamine answered.

"Sojo Takamine, are you familiar with any other case of a monk of our sect finding his love shikabane?", the Dai-Sojo continued.

"Yes, Dai-Sojo."

"Remind me."

Sougen Takamine took a breath. "Monk-in-training Akasha's girl friend was terminally ill. When she died, her regret of not being able to be with him brought her back. He presented her to the sect and asked to become bonded to her as a contracted monk. They became the strongest amongst all bonded.

"Due to that strength, they were fielded with little to no support. In their last assignment, the traitor monk killed his shikabane hime and four other accompanying bonded monks and shikabane hime. He eventually found and sided against us with the Seven Stars, a gang of shikabane that claimed higher motivation for their resurrections. Their resulting machinations destroyed several of our most holiest sites, were responsible for the deaths of at least 110,000 civilians and resulted in the decrease of our bonded pairs to less than one hundred for the first time since WWII."

"I see.", Dai-Sojo commented. "And in light of the foreknowledge of experience, how did you offer the Gon-Sho-Soju the support our sect did not offer Akasha?"

"I did not.", Takamine admitted.

Dai-Sojo Kamiu nodded. "Reacting to the crisis caused by the Seven Stars and Akasha in one's district requires one's complete attention. Please see to the restructuring of yours, Sojo Takamine. I will ask Gon-Dai-Sojo Mibu his opinion on Stoppable's behavior."

The man faded behind his curtain.

"Alright, that's a show people.", Mibu announced.

3

Later, in Sojo Takamine's office, Mibu laid out on a couch. His head was in the lap of an annoyed girl. She may have been dressed in a school's uniform under her buttoned coat and a high powered sniper rifle may have been in the cloth wrapped package leaning against the couch.

"I thought you were gonna be demoted for sure.", Mibu told Takamine. "I have never seen the Dai-Sojo so mad."

Sougen smirked, even if his shikabane hime did not. "I wasn't the one that recruited the child."

"Touche.", Mibu admitted. "But Master Sensei never steered me wrong before. Every time he pointed out the subtle, it was indeed a shikabane."

The sojo sighed. "What caused this...situation is now unimportant. What is is what is expected of me to rectify it."

The second in command of the sect batted a hand at him. "You heard the Dai-Sojo. Take care of cleaning up your district. I'll handle the Stoppable child. Consider it an imperial edict."

"Very well."

"And don't be surprised when some of your monks are transferred to a specific unit.", Mibu continued. "The other sojo will be allowing 'leave' of their charges as I see fit as well. Also, it may not be best to ask too many questions when they come back from this temporary reassignment."


	16. Are you in?

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

The Sloth touched down in the courtyard of Yaumanouchi. A weary Ron, a cautious Yori and a cheery Kim stepped out. The boy rubbed his eyes and looked up into the face of a ninja.

"Konichiwa, Stoppable-san.", Hirotaka bowed.

Ron's frown told more than he could. "I'm sorry to barge in like this. It's just...you got any place I can think for a while. Things are...I don't even know."

Hirotaka took Ron's arm. "We will always be in service to the Ultimate Monkey Master. Your shrine is available whenever you wish it."

"No.", Ron shook his head. "Not there. Is the room where I first stayed free?"

Hirotaka walked with Ron, always keeping a few inches behind and his head bowed beneath Ron's height. "Of course, Stoppable-san."

The two shikabane followed them as they walked toward the barracks. For the most part, the ninja school kept up to its name and few of the students could be detected on their walk. Some of the youngest though stared while trying not to gawk and bowed deeply when they were noticed. The children did not rise while still in Ron's sight.

When they arrived at the room, two female students rushed out. Hirotaka now stepped ahead of Ron into the room. Ron found it just like he remembered. "Thanks a lot.", Ron told him.

Hirotaka bowed. "You honor us by your presence. May the enlightenment you seek grace your meditations." He then bowed his way out of the room, sliding the door closed on his way out.

Ron lay down and Rufus scampered from his pocket. The naked mole rat was about to start chattering away, but then witnessed Ron's expression. With a couple ducks of his head and some gurgling, Rufus galloped to the door and slid is just open enough to get out. The door slid shut again.

Ron looked down on the thin mat and blanket. He rolled the mat up and wrapped the blanket around it. Using it as a pillow and backrest, he crossed his arms behind his head and closed his eyes.

Yori led Kim to a kneeling position by the door, with Yori nearest. When Rufus bounced out of the room, she scooted over to push Kim a few inches and allow Rufus the nearest position. Yori then proceeded to keep her gaze focused on the floor in front of her.

"Maybe now would be a good time to get you another hair band?", Kim asked her.

The corpse shook her head. "If Master Stoppable wishes us groomed, he will give us that opportunity."

She then fell back in silence. They sat on their knees for hours, now that their muscles refused to cramp, as Rufus slept beside them. The two heartbeats amongst the four keeping in time in the silence. And eventually, the dark.

2

Ron stood where Master Sensei used to oversee lessons. For the first time he could remember, every participant was visible and seated in the main courtyard (Now that the Sloth was housed in the black helicopter hangar). Some were obviously too old to be attending the secret ninja school. The boy figured that word must have spread quickly about his return. He knew full well what he was going to do to them. He hoped that he could make up for it.

"I have left you before.", Ron started. "I ordered the death of Master Sensei on the basis of his nature and not his abuse of you, even though Yori and Kim share that nature. I have tried my best to be a sidekick and not a leader my whole life. I graduated with a C grade average.

"And with you knowing that, I am claiming leadership of Yaumanouchi. If you do not wish me to have it, well...Hirotaka seems to be doing alright by you. I will still help with whatever I can and ask nothing in return. There is no penalty or consequence to denying me leadership.

"But if my claim is upheld, then it's a totally different manner. I will order many of you to your deaths. I will stomp all over your traditions, some because of what is in my heart and some because I don't know any better and never learned. And my goals are selfish, one sided. Oh, and I'm Jewish...just thought I'd throw that out there since Fukushima made a big deal out of it."

"Oh yeah.", Ron remembered. "I'm a buffoon too.

"So if anyone wants out, you can have it. And if everyone thinks this is a bad idea, then forget I asked."

A small girl, maybe seven years of age raised her hand. Ron nodded and she stood. "I just want to make sure, Master Stoppa-bel. You are saying that the Ultimate Monkey Master is returning. And that you will call on us to serve you as you see fit."

"Yep, that's pretty much the jist of it.", the boy agreed.

Everyone present switched from seated to kneeling and bowed to Ron. Even Hirotaka and Yori had their heads on the floor of the platform. Kim and Ron glanced around, while Rufus ran back and forth between ninja. They all smiled.

"Hirotaka?", Ron asked.

The man looked up to Ron. "The day has finally come. You are going to fulfill the promise of all our ancestors."

Ron looked slightly saddened by their acceptance. "Okay. Then we have work to do."

3

Wade's fingers moved constantly over his keyboard. He was glad he upgraded to his self-designed, multi-camera 3D capture tool. Now he wasn't limited to a simple keyboard. He could now rock multiple rigs by splitting the signal of the spacing of his fingers to separate server farms, as long as he kept the four dimensional matrix of different arrays of three dimensional image captures straight in his head. Multitasking isn't in the core, it was in the mind.

The boy skipped a beat when he was no longer facing the racks of monitors his eyes usually skipped over in their refresh rate driven sequences. He was puzzled at how he now faced the darkness of his room and not his desk. His unasked question was answered when the darkness handed him the Kimmunicator.

"Wade, just listen to me.", Ron began once the device lit.

Wade rushed out his words. "Ron, what has happened. I hea/"

"This message is recorded.", Ron continued. "Kim's dead. Kim, Yori and I are in trouble with a whole lot of people. There's gonna be hell to pay, let alone war to fight.

"I'm trying to set things right. But the more I mess up, the body count is gonna rise. I need you, Wade. You're the best tech guy I know...and hopefully the only one I need. I can count on you to cover that whole asper...aspect...asparg...er, the tech thing. And that would be one less thing to worry about me messing up on.

"I want you to come where I am. No, it's not a trap, no one's 'making me' say this to you, and honestly-if someone tried I think they might lose their head right now. In fact, what's that code you made me memorize..."Rufus needs his medicine"? But coming to me means you're _in_ and that you're my guy and I don't know for how long. You're going to disappear until I say otherwise, and no one-not even your mom-may ever know.

"I need you. Kim needs you.

"So if you're coming, just hand the Kimmunicator back to the ninja that handed it to you. If you're not, lay it on your workbench: he'll leave on his own.

"God, I hope to see you."

The device shut off. Wade stared into the glow cast by the monitors behind him and saw nothing. He held out the device. Still nothing. The genius let it go. The ninja that revealed himself caught it and nodded once.

4

"I don't want to do any of this, Rufus.", Ron told his pet. "But it's the only way."

Ron walked across the open drawbridge to Castle Fiske- toned, tenacious temptress on his left; buxom, bright beauty on his right and perky, pink pet on his head.

It was easy to find Fist. He was in his...it was no longer a throne room as it had no throne. The man looked up from his lotus position and smiled.

"I knew you would come.", he greeted the boy.

"Dude, look/"

"Ah, ah, ah!", Fist warned. "You see, I've been meditating on my defeats, including the last where yours took the last of mine. He received the burial he described in his will, if you cared.

"Ahem. I have fought you on a great number of occasions in order to become the Ultimate Monkey Master. It always confounded me why you would even try to stop me even though the reason you would is obvious: your partner and you are globe trotting heroes. That's the reason I even asked you to recover the relics that initially opened the doors to Mystical Monkey Power. I had hoped heroes would help me achieve that. When it came time to anoint the chosen one, I committed many criminal acts. Of course you were going to oppose me. As long as I went about matters extra-legally I would inevitably confront you.

"Then why should it puzzle me so? And that's when I realized the true source of my hatred for you. What confounded me is not so much that you stopped me from that power which I had always considered mine. After all, all paths contain some hardship and verily was not an Ultimate Monkey Master to endure such tests? What confounded me so was that you kept stepping towards the goal I had always seen for myself.

"And so I asked myself. 'Was I truly that petty and evil a man?' That mere jealousy drove me to the depths of insanity. Am I that horrible a person? And if so, how could I stay focused on one task and not simply lash out? Was not my dedication, my austerity, my discipline more than enough contradictory evidence?

"But if that was the case, that I am not an evil man, then I must be a good man. But what possible good motivation could there be to steal treasures from public display to gain power for myself? To harass children and scholars and philanthropers all across the globe? To harangue the last man who cared for me to the point that his corpse enforced prophecy?"

Lord Montgomery "Monkey Fist" Fiske took in a single breath and with it the building tension in the room. "In my meditations, I found my answer. The Ultimate Monkey Master is too important to be misidentified. You are a buffoon. Incompetent, easily corrupted, pettily swayed, dumb...the list goes on. How could the chosen one be you? It must not be. And I needed to save the world from the mistake a hormonal teenage girl and her overly affectionate grand-father figure were making.

"But you ascended. I am obviously...'wrong'. You 'are' the Ultimate Monkey Master, 'right'?"

Fiske folded his hands and his feet, then rested his elbows on his knees, then is chin on his hands. He considered the boy anew.

Ron huffed. "Look, dude. If you just give me a minute, I can talk to you. I'm not here to fight."

"Yes, you are.", Monkey Fist assured.

Kim shook her head. "No, really he's not.", she offered with a smile.

Fist waved his hand. "Quiet, you.

"Ronald: I am not speaking about our typical trying to attain some new state or stop one another from that new power. I really think those destructive, pointless squabbles between us are over. I really do. I am talking about proving myself wrong, in my own eyes. Without some outside help, whether it be a world renowned girl-friend, a secret cult of warriors or even Mystical Monkey Power itself there is no possibility of you defeating me. You have never faced me actually on your own. And as far as I can see, it is because I would kill you.

"So here is what is going to happen, Ronald Stoppable. We are going to face each other. You are not going to call upon the girls or your pet or the child's gimmicks or what may very well still be _my_ power. I will not yell for monkey ninjas or a new trinket tasting at the true essence of the thing or some criminal element. There will only be a master of Tai Sheng Pek Kwar who has dedicated everything, _everything_, to becoming the Ultimate Monkey Master: 1.000 days of training and 10.000 days of practice as proscribed by The Book of Five Spheres by Musashi Miyamoto to a doctorate in archeology with specialization in simian symbolism as ascribed by the University of Cambridge. And a boy who...well, what have you done?"

Ron rubbed the back of his neck. "Well...I, er, graduated high school? That counts as an accomplishment."

"Are you a Rowandan refugee?", Fiske asked nearly kindly.

"Um...no?"

"Then it does not.", the man assured.

"We are simply going to enter mortal combat. And as with the samurai, there are only three outcomes. I am going to kill you:which will prove me absolutely right, and I will continue to do everything in my power to become the Ultimate Monkey Master."

"Kill Ron and I will torture you until your last cell oxidizes.", Yori proclaimed.

Ron looked back and forth between the two clad in black gi. "Yori, take that back."

Yori gaped at him. Rufus shook in shock. Kim sadly noted that her nail polish had lost its luster.

Ron pressed on. "I think I get it. So, that's an order, Yori. Take that back."

Yori screwed up her face. She clenched her fists at her sides and when she opened the black orbs of her eyes she bit her words out. "Lord Montgomery Fiske. I hereby renounce torturing you to a slow, horrible and oh-so-permament death in response to Ron-kun's death at your abominably shaped hands as that is what he wants of me."

The girl turned away to a wall, still simmering.

Fiske nodded. "Thank you for the courtesy. But there is no need. Should I be successful, please feel free to attempt whatever vengeance you see fit, my dear."

The corpse' jagged teeth protruded in a vicious grin at the thoughts of rending Monkey Fist asunder while the girl's lips frowned in worry over the harm Ron could come to.

"As I was saying?", the man asked to continue. "Our three fates: I kill you in an actually fair fight means I am the chosen one. You kill me and I suppose I concede that you are the chosen one by default. We kill each other and at least I rest in hell with the solace to cool my burning thirst that you are not plummeting this world into a darker fate."

"What about the forth?", Ron asked.

Fiske rolled his eyes. "It's 'fourth'."

Ron at least knew better than to get dragged into an argument over English with a British doctorate. "When I win and don't kill you, will you finally listen to me?"

"Alas, the hopeless optimism of youth.", Monkey Fist lamented. "Sure. Your wish will be my command."

The two spent a few scant seconds stretching. Then they approached each other. Taking their stances, they rested then strengthened their wrists against the other's.

"Oh.", Ron realized. "You realize you're still using genetic modifications to buff up your body for this fight, right?"

Monkey Fist nodded slowly. "Would you like some handicap to counterbalance this artificial advantage?"

"No, just pointing it out.", Ron explained. "This fight isn't even or fair. I'm still so very much the underdog by your talk."

Yori half turned, desperate to hide her monstrosity from Ron and unable to tear her eyes from his fate. Facing Kim the shikabane saw what the other was doing.

Kim pursed her lips as if to whistle. She instead blew out a thin stream of colored dust that alighted on her nails and glazed them a purple that matched her mission shirt.

_**"what do you think you're doing?"**_, Ron's personal corpse princess whispered at the cadaver of his one true love.

"What?", Kim questioned. "Oh, the duel? My soul mate's risking his life on a risk that some unknown relic can change the fate of the world and should he lose the world will have no savior. No big."

"But what do you think about my nails? Now that I'm dead, I think my heightened sight lets me see my reflection in them! Isn't that exciting?"


	17. Sure

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Ron's and Fist's right eyes met over their wrists. Then both of them dropped.

Once they were crouching, Ron pulled Fist by the side of his hand. Fist pushed himself forward to roll past any potential grip Ron could get and as soon as he was behind the boy launched a kick to Stoppable's head. Ron, knowing the result of the roll, had already thrown himself above Fist and walked his way along his enemy's back with his hands. In the middle of his travel, he dropped to grab Fist around his torso and knee the man's head. Monkey Fist blocked with his right arm wrapped around his head, braced himself on the floor with his left arm and kicked his legs over his back. The genetically re-engineered feet grasped the boy's shoulders and flung him over fist.

Ron kicked up so he would land on the top of his back instead of his face. As he rolled, Monkey Fist back flipped to where the boy would have landed. Ron rolled forward again and Fist back flipped hoping to catch up with him. Ron rolled a third time but flattened out while Monkey Fist back flipped to standing over him. From there, Ron grabbed Monkey Fist's ankles and lifted his legs to grapevine the man's, ending with Ron on top in Monkey Fist's full guard.

Ron's right cross bounced off Monkey Fist's left forearm. Ron's left jab collided with the man's right. The boy pulled back with a hay maker and his upper arm was caught in Monkey Fist's remade foot. The man pushed against it to make room for his own left jab but Ron caught the arm and pressed against the radius with his thumb to twist it away. Monkey Fist kneed Ron in the left side of his rib cage but Ron managed to drop his elbow in front of the blow. It did allow Monkey Fist to be able to reach his face and push against it which created enough room to squeeze his right leg between Ron's right arm and the boy's head.

Monkey Fist now had his back to Stoppable's head and faced the floor but also had a two handed grip on Ron's one right arm. Ron used his left hand to grab the man's shaggy hair and knee up into his bottom most left rib. While maintaining that grab he did what normally would be the worse thing possible, straighten out his trapped limb which exposed it to an arm bar and therefore asking for it to be broken. But with the additional reach he managed to sink his fingers into Monkey Fist's hair, preventing the man from straightening out his back and applying any real pressure to the trapped right arm. From there the boy alternately kneed and elbowed the exposed rib.

Monkey Fist felt his attempt at real damage averted and let go of the arm with his opposable foot. He kicked against the ground hoping to put them on Ron's back so he could use that foot to pry Ron's fingers from his hair. Ron used the lift to stand and slammed Fist back down on his head in a move that the Pain King referred to as 'The Royale With Floor'. Now Monkey Fist still had his spine curved but had his and Ron's weight pressing through his neck.

The man grabbed Ron's face with both feet and pressed him upward, pulling the boy's fingers out of his hair and straightening his spine even though it left Ron's right arm grabbed but not trapped. Ron slid his right foot into the man's left arm pit and pressured the arm away from his right. Falling backwards, Ron's right arm slipped out of the grasp of Fist's left. When Ron's shoulders hit the ground, Fist's right leg lie across him with all four of his limbs closing in on it.

Monkey Fist fought any potential manipulation of it by grabbing Ron's left arm with his right foot and the boy's knees with his hands. Ron used his right hand to tuck Fiske's right foot into his left arm pit and tried to squeeze out an ankle break. Fiske rolled in the direction of the pressure and Ron rolled with it, trying to out race the man's counter. The two rolled into the wall so fast Kim and Yori had to jump out of the way leaving Kim prone on the floor and Yori hanging from a tapestry of the prophecy of this fight.

The grapple shattered apart against the wall. Both tumbled over their heads away from each other then back into the center of the room. Fiske took up a crouching position held up by his fully planted left foot with his right foot and hands hooked in front of his bent body, ready for attack. Ron's form was all but fetal crouched over his left foot with hands busy over his head allowing him only peaks at Monkey Fist, the boy's right foot slightly behind ready to launch him forward.

This conceded the first attack to the elder. Fiske pawed at Ron with his left hand which the boy knocked aside to the outside with his right. The man's left came straight for Ron's face and the boy's left pushed that to his right with his left. With one foot behind and the other underneath, this left Ron's head open to the true attack: the right kick to the head. Ron drew himself away but the kick still connected across his face, causing more pain and less damage than had it collided with the side of his head. But the momentum carried both Fiske and Ron, which allowed the boy to lash out backwards with his right foot and let their spins carry it into the back of Monkey Fist's skull.

As they spun around, Ron quickly plowed the ground with his right foot and punched at Fiske with his left. Fiske knocked the fist down and allowed the decrease distance to carry Ron's face into both of the man's forearms. As Ron's head swung backwards over his hips his right foot swung under, uppercutting Monkey Fist's jaw. Fiske flipped in mid-air, yet low to the ground. Ron pushed his hands with all his weight through the path Fiske's head would take but the man caught himself on his large hairy hands.

The two stood on their hands with their backs inches apart. Ron kicked backward in an attempt to get between Fiske's legs and launch a scorpion kick to the groin. Fiske dropped to his forearms and wrapped his fingers around Ron's wrists. The man kicked forward and pulled himself to a standing position and Ron toward himself. Ron high kicked with both feet and connected with Fist's fingers, freeing him from the holds but doing nothing about the momentum.

Monkey Fist's hands were still too high to touch the boy when Ron's palms collided with his chest. Ron sunk his fingers into Fiske's jacket and whipped his left foot around, tossing the man over his right shoulder. Fist round housed his left foot landing on the balls of his feet in front of Ron and the boy's arm across his body _and_ the full momentum of the throw. When Fiske pulled the boy over his own shoulder, Ron took off. But his shorter height allowed him to flatten out not on the floor but in mid-air. Ron landed on a bent left leg holding him off the floor with his right foot hooked behind Monkey Fist's right knee. The boy pulled with his right foot bringing Fiske's leg to his hands and pushed with his left taking the man off his stance.

Ron sat into Fiske's thigh pulling the knee straight. He snaked his right arm around the lower leg, applying even more torque in an effort to break it. The boy even pressed his left foot into Fiske's groin in his attempts to bend the leg in the wrong direction.

Fiske realized that he could not grab anything that mattered with his hands. His free foot could reach Ronald's shoulders or head, but pulling would only bend his lower leg further back and kicking would only press his pelvis further away. Conceding the match, Lord Montgomery Fiske patted the floor in front of Ron three times with his left foot.

Ron rolled off of him. The child tried to catch his breath. Monkey Fist contracted his leg and stretched it, confirming it was not injured. Nodding to himself, he rose. Kim, Yori and he gazed down at Ron with two looks of love and one of disdain. The man picked him up and set him on his feet.

"ahem", Fiske began. "So...what did you want to talk about?"


	18. Not So Round Table

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

"Splendid.", Montgomery Fiske commented upon meeting Hirotaka. "Yet another young person to loathe."

The teen glared at his sect's previous enemy. "I am glad that I dare not question the true Ultimate Monkey Master, a young person that has soundly defeated you on numerous occasions. Otherwise, my fists might embarrass me with their immodesty."

Ron's now constant frown turned to them. "I had understood I had called this meeting to issue my requirements to Yamanouchi. Is there some personal bickering you want to do instead?"

"No, Master Stoppable.", the two stated simultaneously.

"Then maybe you want to sit down and-oh, I don't know-listen up?"

Ron sat in the place of his picture on the shrine to Monkey Masters. Rufus perched on his shoulder. Kim's corpse stood to his right, holding his hand and he holding hers in turn. Yori's stood to his left, arms crossed. On the floor directly in front of him sat Señor Senior Sr., a robot with a monitor displaying Wade Load, Hirotaka, a woman he still only knew as 'Lunch Lady' and finally Lord Montgomery Fiske. Around the edges of the room sat ninja: some students, some graduates.

"Just checking.", Ron asked. "Everyone here speaks Japanese? Everyone understands the words that are coming out of my mouth?"

"I'm running a translation program on the droid.", Wade's image told him. "Any language gets to my side as English."

Kim blinked. "Now, I do.", she said in perfect local dialect.

"I have an idea to save...well, the world actually.", Ron began. "But I need all of you to do your parts. Everyone has a job to do. I...Ultimate Monkey Master Ronald Jerimiah Stoppable require it of you.

"Triple-S. I need you to get whatever money I had to Yamanouchi. Or at least somewhere I can use it. It's only a matter of time until Global Justice or someone else freezes my assists if they get wind of what we're up to."

The man nodded. "That should prove exceedingly simple. Laundering a few hundred million through my billions should confuse any government agent for months. Or that of Global Justice'."

Ron nearly scoffed. "I can think of at least four guys they have that'll go dog-on-bone. And one's a CPA.

"Wade. Have you had time to go over the facilities here?"

"I'm in the black helicopter hangar now.", the boy's image offered. "For ninja, they have a really sweet setup. Nothing on any of my rigs, but I can't turn invisible or cling to walls. At least without a sheet of LED and photosite laced fiber optics and about ten million fly legs."

Ron nearly asked, but didn't let himself get sidetracked. "How long until we can get everyone at the school geared up?"

"Like you and Kim normally go out?", Wade asked. "Probably by the end of the night. I don't see how that would help them more than what they've been trained on. But now that the dead walk the earth with superpowers and bad mojo? I'd like to get everyone in a battle suit based off the original design for Kim with a few of the improvements I've been brewing. That might take like a week or so."

"I understand.", Ron nodded. "Get to work but don't wear yourself out. And keep in mind Sr.: I'm not keeping him off the front line."

"er...Lunch Lady?", Ron asked.

The woman bowed her head to the floor despite sitting in a lotus position.

"Look, I'm going to be involved with some very serious stuff. Maybe all around the world. I need this school to be able to run along just fine without me. Can you see that the day to day operations go along?"

The woman cocked her head.

Ron's head bobbed. "I suppose that would include any missions that were previously scheduled to relieve oppression throughout the world. Whether they were contracted or not."

The elder smiled then bowed again.

Ron sighed, as he knew pretty well what that meant for at least some human being on the planet.

"Hirotaka. I'm going to need to be able to call upon teams at a moment's notice."

"We will be ready to serve at your whim, Master Stoppable."

"Yori and Kim will be at my side as much, if not more, than Rufus is. Is that clear?"

The room nodded all around.

Ron settled his gaze on Fiske. The man crossed his arms and legs. The former arch-nemesis turned an expression that nearly dared Ron to assign him a task. Unfortunately, Ron dared.

"I need you to find something.", Ron told him. "I don't know what it's exactly called. It sounds like 'Temp Us Simily' but it/"

The boy was cut off by the biologically re-engineered madman chortling. Fiske's hands and feet clapped as his simian genome raced away with his self control.

Ron leaped to his feet. "Fiske, this is all riding on you."

Fiske stood before him instantly. A menacing head of height glared down on Ron.

Fiske sneered, "Buffoon, you have truly out-ninnied yourself this time."

"It is not wise to speak of the Ultimate Monkey Master that way.", Hirotaka quietly reminded Fiske.

Fiske whirled on the ninja. "We all here serve his greater purpose. Of that, have no doubt. And in that vein, I suggest you keep your quite inaccurate idolatry of him out of your judgement. It does him no service to think of him as he is not and have it cloud your service to him. Even the most paltry inkling of Sun Tzu's work could point out the folly of a warlord thinking himself greater than he is."

"But Machiavelli noted that any prince cannot afford to let any of his ministers feel that they can speak honestly about every subject, let alone openly, least of all an opinion that is an unsavory personal assessment.", Hirotaka replied. "I am well versed in Western ways. That is why I was chosen for the exchange with Master Stoppable in the first place."

"Lord Fiske.", Señor Senior Sr. interrupted. "I too have witnessed Mr. Stoppable's antics on the field of battle. While I can see an untrained eye might consider his unpredictable and boisterous actions 'buffoonery' I can also accept that they may be the unique stratagems of a Monkey Master."

Fiske continued. "But what he asks is at best a jest, at worst a curse. The Tempus Simia cannot exist. Had it, he would know that he would not be standing where he is. If a talisman that granted its wielder the power to travel through time was in this world, surely I would have taken it long ago. I would have joined as many of his enemies as I could. We would have traveled back to a more formative time and broken the spirit of his precious Kim Possible and prevented every single one of the events leading up to the fate he wields today.

"The fact that he asks me for it is more than enough proof that it cannot be delivered."

Ron stared into the man's eyes. "You want to know how I know you can bring it to me? You used it to help me in the future I visited."

The room went silent. Fiske's head shook. "No, no, no. How would I have not found it amongst all the legends I had? What clues could possibly exist that I did not have access to?"

"Ours?", Yori suggested.

Fiske looked at Yori as if seeing a masterpiece for the first time. "Of course. Master Stoppable, I take my leave to search through the annals of this school."

The man strode out with a pep in his four limbed step.

Once he was gone, Hirotaka spoke. "We will need to kill him once he completes his task. A villain like that will only seek to use such power for evil."

"A villain like how?", Senior asked.

The man raised himself to a standing position using his cane. "Villainy is a means to an end. A man that has spent his life seeking a proper Monkey Master to rule the world and altered himself so to serve as such may not easily betray one that has ascended before him."

"He seemed to have accepted it twenty years from now.", Ron declared.

He looked to Kim's cheerful, if exceedingly pale, smile. "Besides, it's the only way I can set things right."

"It is time you took a meal, Master Stoppable.", Yori reminded him. She leaned against him and looked at Kim. "I can lead you to where we eat. There should be tea ready."

Kim blanched. "Count me out.

"I think I'll just check out the hot springs. Mom always said a hot spring is supposed to be ten times better than a bathtub."

Yori's frown nearly showed. "I'll just have to keep him company in the mean time then."

"Don't worry, KP.", Ron instructed. "I'll join you pretty quick. Just keep it warm for me."

"Ro-o-on.", Kim said in the scolding voice she often talked to him with. "You don't have to keep a hot spring warm. Didn't you learn anything in high school?"

Before anyone could object to her tone of voice, a burst of flame flashed around her. Her mission togs had disappeared, leaving her in towels for the spring. A mist of green appeared above the shikabane and by the time it settled on the floor she had vanished.

Ron shrugged. "She didn't need to teleport. We have to give L.L. time to...where did she go?"

The lunch lady was no where to be seen. "Ninja.", he commented to himself.

2

The cafeteria was filled. More graduates had come back to take part in the mission of the Ultimate Monkey Master. The normally silent ninja were abuzz. And at the head table sat Ron Stoppable.

Being fed by a clingy corpse princess. With Lunch Lady holding the tray absolutely still, not risking an errant blow from either the undead ninja or the endowed god king, Ron slowly chewed what Yori lifted to his lips with her chopsticks. His gaze was a million miles away despite the girl in his lap.

"Possible-kohai was not very respectful earlier.", Yori said in a conversational tone.

"'Kohai'?", Ron asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I only mean she has not held our condition as long as I have.", the corpse covered.

The boy nodded. "KP always had a tendency to get annoyed over small things. Seemingly the more inconsequential the more she threw herself into hyperdrive: even when I started hanging out with Felix she nearly choked herself trying to prove she could eat as messily as we could. The big things, no matter how difficult or trying or how much compassion and charity and bravery they took,...they all just rolled off her back. It's like a shikabane only holds onto her worst qualities in death."

Yori hugged him with her free arm. "Why do think that is true with her while my devotion to you is what brought me back?"

The boy held her gaze unflinchingly.

"I'm not very hungry. I'll be with KP at the springs." And with that, Ron stood and walked out of the dining hall.

Yori's clenched fist rendered the steel chop sticks unusable. The corpse left the room not eating anything for two days straight. She didn't approach the bathing area, though.


	19. Have to Try

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Montgomery Fiske struggled to close the scroll he was carrying. "What is all the infernal racket?"

"The Ron Factor Brother Fiske.", a nine year old girl told him. In the courtyard of Yaumanouchi, a hundred ninja stuck out their arms at differing angles. They all round house kicked in unison, pausing in the middle. The students then fell to their backs and kippopped to a standing position. The group punctuated each move with the mantra "This is the Ron Factor!" and finished the kata with "ah, Booyah!".

The archeologist's sneer of disdain overlaid with the open mouth shock of disbelief threatened to tear his face asunder.

"That's about as much as I remember guys.", Ron instructed his followers. "Take a break. I don't think it's anything to really practice at."

Upon spotting Fiske, Ron approached him. As always he was flanked by the corpses of Kim and Yori, except when eating or bathing respectively. "eh, Sorry about the noise. I tried to tell them the scientists told me it wasn't real, but they wanted to see it anyway." Behind him a ninja declared "This is the Ron Factor", slipped on his supporting foot in the middle of a heel kick and 'accidentally' fell through twenty bricks as if they were sand.

"So how close are you to getting the Tempus Simia?", the boy asked.

Fiske's eyes lit up and it was as if he was a different person. "Well, aside from Master Sensei's tendency to write as if he grew up before the Tokugawa era, my research is progressing surprisingly well. His accounts of objects imbued with abilities to foretell the appearance of the Ulti...you...tend to be as detailed as they are reverent. Also, I've already traced his archival of the Golden Banana to the temple on Sri Lanka from which the Tamil Tigers told me they retrieved it. So should the Tempus Simia exist, and of course it does because the High and Mighty Ronald Stoppable has foretold it, I may be looking in the right place for a clue.

"By the way, where is Master Sensei? I cannot believe that he would be happy about my presence."

"That is of no concern of yours, Fist.", Yori told him plainly.

"I ordered Yori to kill him.", Ron answered. Yori nearly turned to gawk at him, but her desire to accept whatever decision he made won out. "Yori used her supernatural powers to murder the only person who cared for her as a child on my whim. And on a completely unrelated note, I hope that Tempus Simia gets found soon."

As Monkey Fist's sneer threatened to become a smile, the Wadebot 2.0 came up. On its monitor was a frantic Wade. "We got a hit on the site. And that's not the half of it."

Ron looked at Kim then turned back to the Wadebot. "We'll be right there."

2

Ron sat on the same platform on the altar in the shrine. In a line on his right sat Fiske, Hirotaka and Lunch Lady in perfect lotus position. To his left sat Yori and then Kim. In front of them, the Wadebot continued.

"This is the message we received.", Wade announced on screen.

He was replaced by a recorded message. One of the most generic Global Justice agents they had ever seen began. "Team Possible."

"The super criminal Camille Leon is at large. She seeks to travel from Vienna to Tuscany by train in an attempt to elude Austrian authorities. It is expected that her attempt will take place in the next day or two.

"We request your assistance for her recapture. Your unique abilities have always aided us in the past, particularly in cases like this. Thank you in advance."

Wade returned to the screen. "The message is of course fake. The person is computer generated. On the otherhand, it did trace back to a GJ node on the net."

Hirotaka started speaking. "So the real question is why would Global Justice set you up? And with such a flimsy attempt after their attempt to arrest Master Stoppable."

"It could also not be a trap.", Ron offered. "This might be GJ's attempt to apologize. I mean, they can't exactly get caught calling KP and me. Can't that be why they made an obviously fake video? So if it ever gets back to the U.N. they can deny it?

"It's not like they wouldn't have called us in on Camille before all this. And then add in what we know now. A woman who flat lined in experimental plastic surgery for at least ten minues. Who can shift into any face she likes. Always trying to live the high life no matter how much it's going to get her caught or what she has to do to try it."

"There is the more sophisticated threat.", Señor Senior Sr. "Camille Leon may actually be at large. There are utilizing the fugitive as bait, not only against your desire to contain criminal threats but against your ethics to let her hurt anyone else. Just because it is a trap does not mean the enticement isn't real."

"But with that reasoning, there's no reason to think they know that that the dead walk the earth.", Fiske added. "What about the message from the Global Justice medic? That this...Will Du has moved without a pulse but has remained on duty. This organization's acceptance of the use of shikabane doesn't lead us to a decision. After all, they could understand the need for all the help they can get against a member of the undead but they could also now suspect Yori's true nature and seek to entrap you because of it."

Yori pointed out another perspective. "Who can say that Global Justice at large knows that shikabane exist? Du-san may be either hiding his condition or even unaware of it."

"So it could be one of three ways.", Ron told the group. "In one hand, GJ may be trying to kill off shikabane and that may mean Yori or Leon/"

"Or simply capture for dissection.", Kim casually suggested.

Ron sighed. "Another way is they don't know about shikabane and this is legitimate. They just want Camille. This is Dr. Director's way of letting KP and me know that they had to take their shot because of the U.N. but now it's done."

"Dr. Director?", Senior asked.

"Betty Director is the commanding officer of Global Justice.", Ron answered. "I don't know what exactly she's a doctor of. But she's a real tough lady and willing to take a few more risks than some of her employees, but only when there's no other way."

Fiske folded his arms and his legs. "What is the third possibility, Ronald?"

"That this is just a trap and shikabane aren't a suprise to Global Justice. Camille Leon, Will Du and a horde of other monsters are all going to flip out the minute any one of us shows their face.", he lamented.

"So what are you going to decide?", the man continued.

"We go anyway.", Ron said simply. "Senior's right. Camille isn't someone that can be left alone, particularly since she's in all likelihood a rogue shikabane."

"I'll get the finest warriors we have readied for the assassination, Master Stoppable.", Hirotaka acknowledged.

"No you won't.", Ron told him. "KP, Yori and I will take care of it. Anyone else facing a monster...I won't do that until I have to. Any one of we three could take care of if it's honest and escape if it's a trap. All three of us should be enough overkill to make sure we cover anything we can't think of before hand."

"What I'm concerned about is a double attack. If it's a trap, Dr. Director should have set up a meeting. This doesn't seem controlled enough for something she planned. So this may be just the diversion to cut away our support again. Namely, you guys. We bite on the bait and every hoverjet they have blasts the compound.

"And everything rides on Monte. We lose him, we've lost."

"So, Hirotaka:I want you to take that died blonde hair and some civilian clothing and go find some city we could hole up in. And by 'we' I mean everyone. No one left behind.

"But make sure any body who can face GJ is braced for an immediate attack."

"Lunch Lady, start prepping everyone in case we need to evacuate Yamanouchi."

"Senior, two things. First, make sure I can afford the move. Second, clean up your island, you might have some house guests soon."

Senior nodded. "Of course, Mr. Stoppable."

"Wade.", Ron called for the attention of the genius.

"Your ride's already taken care of.", Wade answered as the image on the Wadebot switched over from Senior.

The smallest of smiles crossed Ron's face. "Just like old times."

"No, this is pretty cutting edge.", Wade stated obliviously. "I've managed to retrofit one of the silencers that the ninja use on their black helicopters to the Sloth. Adding in the same optic camoflauge from the battlesuit, it's basically super-stealth mode all the way. If this is a trap, at least GJ won't know when it's sprung."

"Speaking of the battlesuits and ninja...?", Ron continued.

"We're about to make the leap from fabrication to production over here.", Wade replied.

Ron stood. "Then everyone's ready. Alright: KP, Yori...ready?"

"It will always be prepared to serve at your side, Master Stoppable.", Yori bowed.

"Save the world from and undead, criminal debutante while thwarting an NGO paramilitary.", Kim stated. "No big."

3

"Master Stoppable.", Yori started as Ron, Kim and she walked to the hangar. "I believe I have an idea to avoid this missive being a trap."

4

"The message is genuine.", the scientist stated. "Everyone correlates to every projection of Ron Factor data we could dig out of the archives. It's come from Mr. Load's regular intercept nodes."

Another scientist continued the analysis. "Worse is how very genuine it is. Yes, his eyes flicker probably indicate he's reading the message. But voice pitch, heat inferration, pulse rate...all of it implies he means what he says. This is completely against what we know about his psyche profile."

Dr. Director scoffed. "I think having the world brand you a criminal after a career of child soldiering for it will change a young man's psychological make up, don't you?

"Replay the message."

Ron Stoppable's face sped backwards in time and came to a freeze. Then he started speaking.

"Dr. Director. uh, Hi. I wish this could be a better message, but it's not going to be. I'm sorry. I know that won't help, but I'm sorry anyway.

"We got your message about Camille Leon. I think it's a good thing that you're calling us in on this. She's more dangerous than you know. She's way wicked more scary than we used to know. We'll get her for you, don't worry."

The boy slouched his shoulders. He looked back up, but just to the side of the camera. There was a small sound that could have been the shuffling of placards but it was hard to tell. At this point, it was fairly obvious he was reading some other person's words.

"However, due to our recent interactions I need assurance that this is not a trap. The small window in which the action against the criminal must take place does not allow outside investigation. So I am reduced to this threat: If there is any Global Justice action against any Team Possible personnel, I will..."

Ron's pleading eyes looked up then drooped. His head nodded. Then his gaze returned to the camera with a new determination.

"If there is any Global Justice action against any Team Possible personnel, I will rape Global Justice' commanding officer Dr. Elisheba "Betty" Director. Be assured that not only Team Possible, but I, am fully capable of fulfilling this obligation should it come to terms. But please, don't make me. As an intelligence and espionage officer, you know that once a threat has been issued it has to be made good on. It can't be taken back. And I'm only making it to keep the Global Justice guys that would get hurt laying a trap like this safe. Even if it was a trap, just pull back from it. I don't want to do this...but anything else wouldn't work. I can't threaten your organization: all of your agents have already risked their lives by becoming GJ. I can't threaten the world: that's what you deal with everyday. But you...they'll care enough to stop. Let them. Please.

"**יסלח לי אלוהים כי חטאתי**"

The first scientist, the same one who worked so closely with Stoppable during the investigation into the Ron Factor began to translate. "It's Hebrew. It/"

"I remember my bat mitzvah, thank you very much.", Dr. Director reminded him. "It means 'God forgive me for my sins'.

"Any ideas on what could be pushing him to these types of lengths?"

The second scientist shrugged. "The only thing that our data suggests that could push Ron Stoppable into a breakdown is the death of Kim Possible. And there's no evidence for that."

The first interrupted. "We have scanned the video for clues to the location of the setting, but the background is artificial. Not in the sense of being graphically inserted into the picture after it was filmed, but in that the background itself is a projected image. That combined with Mr. Load's typical cracker ability has made the point of origin a mystery for the ages.

"I suggest/"

"I suggest you keep to analysis.", Dr. Director warned.

She turned to the watch officer. "Where is Agent Du's team?"

"South Eastern Europe, Director.", he told her. "They underwent radio silence yesterday and stated they would report only after an initial engagement with the target."

_Will_, the woman thought. _What have you wrought?_


	20. 10 and 11 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

"Master Stoppable!", a ninja in a white practice gi called out. The person she called out to didn't stop. The ninja ran up to the person getting on Hirotaka's bike...

...and found Hirotaka. The ninja was wearing a hockey jersey and entirely too much blonde dye in his hair. "I am sorry, Hirotaka-senpai. But why are you dressed in that sport's shirt?"

"Allow me to paraphrase Laurence 'Mr. T' Tureaud.", Hirotaka answered. "Two reasons: the first is because I can and the second is because if it's good enough for Our Lord and Savior then it's good enough for me.

"What I mean is that worship is personal and we have a unique opportunity. Sensei carried over his teaching into death. Yori carried over her attraction into death. Perhaps my imitation is nothing compared to their devotion. But I feel it brings me closer to him.

"Fortunately, I'm a teenager. If I go through a few phases with my fashion, I'm simply fitting in better. And that makes it easier to disappear."

The blonde ninja got on his motorcycle. "Master Stoppable instructed me to find a population center we could fade away in should the campus come under attack. So I will see your attempt to grow closer to the Ultimate Monkey Master in your own heart after I return."

2

Kim Possible led the team in her second mission outfit. Yori brought up the rear. Ron walked between the two, Rufus peeking from his pocket. He felt not quite uncomfortable but as if something were amiss. He was accustomed to being the distraction, the point man wearing a bright red bull's eye on his shirt and yellow "Kick me" sign on his back. It was how he always had KP's back. And now the only way to save her was Fiske, a man he had only the flimsiest reason to believe in and only he could make act on KP's behalf. So he resigned himself to accepting the possibility that both KP's and Yori's corpses might sacrifice themselves so that he may save KP.

The team made their way single file through the train. It seemed to go on forever: they had started with an actual caboose, and had already cleared the cargo cars, a kitchen and a dining car and several sleepers. And when they had gotten through with those, they came upon a coach car.

As they walked in from the rear, their target came through the front. "Like, drat and all.", Camille commented. The shikabane pouted but in a way that had several civilians taking camera phone photos of her carefully fashionable outfit. "I thought Global Justice had taken you guys out of my hair."

"Don't worry.", assured Will Du. He carefully folded the magazine he was hiding behind back into the pouch of the seat in front of him before standing. "We will take all of you."

Camille spun to the Global Justice agent behind her. Slouching her shoulders she sighed. "Now I'll have to, like, make some lame getaway to the back of the train or something."

Team Impossible stood up from the rear of the car. As Team Possible turned to them, Crash Cranston announced, "That's not going to happen either."

Yori glanced at the entire car to take in the situation instantly. Kim hadn't changed her expression once the entire mission. Ron though, was grinding his teeth in anger.

"I promised her.", Ron muttered to himself. "Director had to have gotten my threat. Why did she make me do this? Why?"

Will started speaking in a calm but firm voice, just like the Counter Terrorism Manual advised. "Civillians, remain in your seats. We are agents of Global Justice. We are in control of the situation. After/"

"Yori, Camille.", Ron cut him off.

Yori instantly charged at Camille with the speed of a motorcycle. Camille seemed bored but was apparently ready. The flesh of her fingers distended, whipped around Yori and threw her through the window in the door leading to the next car. The dastardly and dead debutante coiled into a spring and unwound through the hole.

Ron continued with the same breath. "KP, Will."

Kim rematerialized in front of the undead agent. Will could scarcely react before she grabbed him in a hug and jumped through the aluminum roof of the train car with him.

Ron then turned to the men behind him. "Ready for the rematch?", Burn Burnam asked.

"Can you let these innocent people past you before I answer?", Ron countered.

Team Impossible took into account the passengers in the train car gaping at them...and the holes the undead creatures had made. The three scooted out of the aisle to let them flow around Ron and out the back door.

The men came back to the aisle. Burn raised his arms, demanding a response to his earlier question.

"No.", Ron stated. "I'm not."

And with that, the blue ring on his finger became the nearly glowing crystal kodachi it was always meant to be. Ron stabbed it through the roof of the train car. When his aura became visible to even the most untrained eye, he sliced a vertical circle in a single arc. Team Impossible was still trying to convince themselves they saw the glowing blue, fiery monkey overlay for the moment it had leaped into existence when they noticed Ron standing still yet moving away. But by then the part of the train they were on was separated from the still locomotive piece.

"Live long happy lives, fellahs!", Ron called out. Rufus stuck out his tongue and blew.

Now he was down to two situations to take care of. One was his shikabane hime battling an undead sociopath who had practiced her curse to the point of imitating people. The other was the girl who could _actually_ do anything fighting the loudmouth she had bested on multiple occasions before. Ron instantly headed for KP.

3

Yori lie on her back as Camille sat astride her, holding her down by vining her fingers around her arms and torso a dozen times.

"Like, assign the Japanese, costumed girl to take on the super villain that can form tentacles with every part of her body.", Camille scoffed. "That was, like, such a good plan."

Yori raised an eyebrow. "I had not realized that lesbianism was _that_ fashionable in the West."

Camille slammed the shikabane hime against the floor, causing a slight dent in the metal underneath the rug. "Rape isn't about sex, it's about power.", she said. "And power's always in fashion. Just like pretty. They go, like, hand in hand. And since I'm prettier than you, I get to do whatever I want to you."

A man who had been torn between staying put in his seat and making a run for it ever since the two came crashing into his car decided that the psychotic ranting was motivation enough to flee. But when he started moving, Leon whipped her head to the side and let her tongue form a coil that lashed him into the window of his seat. The safety glass spider webbed cracks all over. The man slumped down unmoving.

"See?", Camille continued. "I'm prettier than him and now he's, like, concussed or something.

"I've always been better than everyone, that's why Daddy and Mommy gave me everything. And as soon as I could, I made sure I'd have enough plastic surgery to be the prettiest forever. So I could do what I wanted forever. That whiney doctor. 'omigod, but you, but you..." He was the first to find that out when he kept screaming about how I died: I wanted him to shut up and then he, like, did. When I wrapped my new body around his neck."

Camille lengthened the fingers on one hand and shortened them on the other. The effect turned Yori face down, bent at the waist.

"God, I hope you're a virgin.", she said. "I'm too pretty for anyone else' sloppy seconds."

4

Kim Possible and Will Du punched through the roof of one train car and landed on top of the car in front of it. Both rolled to a standing position: Kim near the car's junction and Will about in the middle of it.

Will immediately reached for his watch. The twin wires hit Kim's breast and completed the circuit that sent a private lightning bolt through the undead girl. Kim's eyes went wide...

...in disgust. "I'm a girl.", she said. "You should really watch where you shoot those things."

"You're under arrest.", Agent Du told her adamantly.

"No, I couldn't be.", the shikabane decided. "I know sixteen types of kung-fu."

Will's jaw went slack as he tried to understand her logic. Then she scratched his face with her right, gloved hand as she turned her body perpendicular to his. Her left had to cross herself to claw his throat because of the akward orientation. But the girl was able to slap the top of his head with the fingers of her right hand and knee his crotch with her right knee and shuffle into him due to the position. "Crab.", Kim counted.

Her left hand moved from his neck to his chin and her right clamped down on his head. She spun her left foot around in front of her. Kim's grip sent the agent spinning. She reached out with all ten fingers and stopped his motion with hard jabs. "Black Tiger.", she continued.

Having put herself into horse stance, the shikabane kicked her right leg over into Will's left leg. Her left arm blocked out his right while her right slapped down his left. Both fists came in simultaneously and started a staccato of pounding, forcing Will prone. "Wing Chung."

She saw Will put his hands behind him to kippop back to his feet, so she let his momentum carry him into her stomp on his sternum. Kim sensed the kick he planned to her back side and stepped on his face to take her away from it. "Jeet Kun Do."

The girl spun in a low arcing kick that spun Will on his back. He threw himself up with more strength than he ever had when he was alive and landed face first into a high round house kick that had him spinning in circles, mid-air over the train. "White Crane."

Once Du had a foot against the train car's roof again, he launched his momentum at Kim. The girl redirected his punch to her right then wrapped his arm around him and pulled loose. The spin pulled Will stumbling. "Tai Chi."

Kim sunk her fingers into a pinch in the crook of Will Du's elbow and cemented her hold by pinching the raised shoulder blade of his bent back arm. "Pak Mei", Kim went on.

"hmmm...Let me think..."

Will threw his other elbow behind him. Kim sneaked her fingers from under his shoulder blade, over his arm into his neck. As he was pushed away, her hand slithered down to grab his wrist. As she jabbed the fingers of her other hand into his arm pit, Kim announced, "Oh yeah. Snake."

Kim pulled that jab back, then finger jabbed with both hands into Will's chest. She collapsed her fingers to the knuckles and then fists. She uppercutted with both hands in finger jabs and collapsed back down to knuckles then fists again. "Monkey, of course."

As Du fell back from the assault, she launched her left leg up behind her and her right leg followed. Like the arms on a clock, Kim's right foot sped past her left as they rotated her about her hips to come down on the agent. "Dragon."

The girl curved her hands in toward herself. She made nearly grasping motions that brought Will closer to her even though he was continually jabbed. "Praying Mantis."

Once he was hunched over her, Kim bent at the knees and punched into his gut. She then jumped and spun in mid air, bringing her foot down in a stomp on Du's head. "Rat."

The red head clawed up the fingers of her right hand and snatched Du's left ear. His head led his body around and she jerked on the protrusion. "Eagle Claw."

Will held out some hope and punched with all his undead imbued strength. The blow bounced off Kim's abs harmlessly. "Iron Robe."

Kim lifted her right leg outside and stomped his head into the roof of the train car, which she followed with a giant chopping motion that bounced her fist off the vertebrae in his neck. "Kuntao."

Then she struck a pose. "And Cheer Leader!", she claimed. "It's a crowd pleaser."

A bloody and battered Will Du rose to stand before her. That's when Ron poked his head over the edge of the part of the train car that remained after he cut it in half. Ron saw KP fighting Will and promptly cut the agent's legs off at the knee with the Lotus Blade.

Even before climbing up onto the roof.

"Did you save Yori?", the shikabane accused Kim's boyfriend.

Ron stepped over the undead Will Du who was trying to make sense of his amputated forelegs. "I'll always have _your_ back, KP."

"Well then, we better hurry.", the girl told him. "Camille was talking about raping her and that's when the shooting started."

3

Once face down, Yori could dig in with her toes. She started running and slid out from under Camille. Even though she was still wrapped in the monsters elongated fingers, she was out in front of Leon's body. The shikabane hime kicked off the ground and rolled and rolled in mid air. Camille's fingers twisted up into themselves between the monster's hands and the flesh that bound Yori.

Camille felt her flesh bind against itself. Lengthening even more, her fingers expanded around Yori and unravelled the twists the ninja had caused. Leon could then see the corpse princess through a window of fleshy tendrils.

Right down the barrel of the Beretta Yori had used to kill the monkey ninjas. The ninja pulled away on the trigger and bullets jumped into Camille's face and bounced off the walls behind her. But instead of exploding, the shikabane's head had deformed. The bullets fell lifelessly to the floor in front of the criminal as Camille's head reformed to its normal shape.

Then what was left of Will Du's animated corpse fell through a hole Kim had stomped in the train car's roof. The remnants of the agent landed on Camille, followed promptly by the point of the Lotus Blade. Ron drove the magical sword through Leon's skull and into the train floor.

"So, like, you think I can be killed as if I were a zombie?", the monster asked allowed as the weapon pinned her to the floor by her brain. "Exactly how are you planning to destroy my brain when I can just, like, shift around whatever you hit me with?"

Yori caught Kim as she fell through the hole she had caused. Setting her down, the ninja rifled through the pockets in her utility belt finding the girl's laser lipstick.

Before she could activate it, Kim caught her arm by the wrist. "Are you actually going to not even ask to borrow my 'make up'? That's so rude."

Yori rolled her eyes. "Possible-kohai. It would be your honor to allow me to destroy the undead shape-shifter by the use of your weapon." Kim didn't let go. "'Please' and 'thank you.'"

Then the red head let go. "You're welcome.", Kim replied.

Yori burned away all the elongated fingers that whipped at the weapon pointed at Camille's head. When the smell of burning human flesh ruined the air, the criminal shikabane's flopping ceased.

"I think he counts toward your one-hundred and eight as well.", Ron commented sadly.

"You're all under arrest. You're all under arrest!", Will Du stubbornly chanted from his prone position.

Yori nodded. "I never would have expected to apply lipstick to a man before today."

5

One bureaucrat at Global Justice turned to another. "Did you see these?", he asked. "Filled out booking forms for the arrests of Kim Possibly, Ron Stoppable and Sato "Yori" Yagamoto a.k.a. Yori Yaumanouchi keep appearing in the system. I've deleted about twenty of these."

The other brought up a search of the records. "Yeah. But they've stopped generating now. Whatever glitch was causing them isn't happening now. Delete 'em while you can. Actually, save a copy of one. They seem to be perfectly filled out. It'll be good to hand the field agents an example of how to fill out paperwork that doesn't have Will Du's name all over it."

6

"Are you sure?", the blue robe clad priest asked the school girl lying beside him.

The girl scoffed in annoyance around her sniper rifle. "He's blonde, right? He's wearing the same out of date hockey jersey as in all four of his past high school yearbook photos, right? And look at that walk: it screams 'Tai Sheng Pek Kwar is a way of life to me'.

"So hit me already."

The priest sighed. He then spoke into the lapel of his robe. "It's him. You, shikabane hime and priests are authorized. Take him out."

The man then placed his hand on the school girl's back. When she pulled the trigger, red lightning coursed out and coalesced on the bullet. It jumped in speed and took off to fast to hear.

Hirotaka didn't have to hear it. While gazing in the window of a hotel, he caught a reflection of red streaking toward him. Deftly placing one foot and then the next on the glass of the window, he reached a height to flip off before it shattered. The bolt of red and the bullet encased in it sailed past him as he vaulted onto a parked car.

Over the sound of a thousand slivers of glass came the war cry of a ten year old girl. Hirotaka back flipped nearly without stopping from the parked car. An ornate hammer destroyed the resting vehicle and the little blonde girl attached to it seemed very displeased.

The ninja landed on a car driving down the street. The innocents inside the vehicle were thrown into their air bags as seven arrows blew out the left front tire and a barrage of bullets blew out the left.

Hirotaka dived off the back of the car when the little girl used her hammer as a vaulting pole and hurled herself at him. Her swing carried her into the street past the ninja. Hirotaka was too well trained to follow the threat he knew the location of with his line of sight. That's why he spotted the teenager in a tight black jacket and a long pleated skirt armed with semi-automatic pistols running past the now ruined parked car. The ninja leaped over the parked car the new girl kicked at him. He allowed his prone body to hit the asphalt of the street with a hard smack to lie under the car as it reversed course when the child batted it back with her hammer. The car crushed the newcomer against the wall of the hotel.

"Sorry, Itsuki-kohai!", the little girl called out.

"No problem, Saki-senpai.", the teen responded. She pushed the car away from her with her left hand while holding the ruined guns in her right. Itsuki's left eye glew yellow upon being reminded of her death at the hands of an automobile accident.

"Shikabane.", Hirotaka tested.

"Shikabane hime.", Saki corrected.

Hirotaka did not take the time to nod to himself for determining that the attack was by the Kougon sect. He was too busy hurdling over the first destroyed car to avoid an incoming volley of arrows.

Itsuki stood and immediately was struck in her heart by one. The teen looked down at the lethal shaft protruding from her chest.

"Sorry!", a priest with glasses and a tradtional Kyudo bow called out.

Hirotaka raced into the hotel and immediately turned. Fortunately for him, he spotted the next attack. Unfortunately for him, it was a better aimed lightning encased bullet. Only due to its brightness and a decade of training was the ninja able to draw his kodachi from underneath the loose hockey jersey and bring it into the bullet's path. The sniper round was cut in two and passed harmlessly around him. The surrounding energy knocked Hirotaka off his feet and into the hotel clerk's desk.

As he kippopped back to standing, a young woman ran through the broken window after him. On one hand, she dressed in hot pants, a halter top and a loose dressing robe. In the other, she struck Hirotaka as being out of the supposed age range for shikabane hime. She reached out towards him with a set of metal claws over her hands. The young ninja side stepped the wires that pierced the desk behind him but lost his kodachi as they wrapped around his sword and ripped it out of his hands.

Hirotaka knew he was still in the line of fire from the sniper rifle, and the bow. The only cover were his opponents, one of which was wielding a hammer that weighed more than the both of them, one shoved a car aside and the other was the new comer. Hirotaka bounded on his knuckles to the woman and through himself into a monkey style leap onto the woman.

She ducked and covered her head. The ninja never touched her. As if sharing a psychic connection, the child managed to be in the right place at the right time to clear the air above the woman with her hammer. The highly trained but still completely mortal Hirotaka nearly exploded as if hit by a wrecking ball.

Whether or not the young man's obsession with worshiping Ron or any possible regret and not serving him was enough to bring him back was never became an issue. His loose head was repeatedly smashed in by at least two bonded undead long before any police secured his remains.

7

The Sloth decloaked in the black helicopter hangar of Yaumanouchi. Ron was carefully guided out of the car by Kim and Yori's corpses.

The boy was completely unprepared for the sea of girls struggling to kiss him. Ron yelped as he cowered under a protective shield cast by Kim.

"Dude, holy moly!", Ron exclaimed. "What's going on? And before KP starts taking people out!"

Kim supported Ron with her right hand and had her left outstretched as if summoning the force field. But now that it existed, Kim appeared ready to drag the female ninjas right through it by their hair.

Yori giggled. "They have come upon the idea that becoming your lover will make them immortal by proving their devotion to you. After all, every other woman that has died that you've had in your bed resurrected."

Ron stood from his crouch and frowned. "Can you tell them that I'm sorry. I don't think it really works quite like that."

Yori spoke quickly in Japanese. After a few words of consolation, the girls bowed to Yori who then bowed but not as deeply. When Yori stood, the girls left.

The crowd clearing away gave the three he ability to see Wade. Ron took one look at him. "What's the bad news this time?", he asked.

Wade wanted to respond with some clever 'real world Wade doesn't necessarily mean bad news, it just usually does' joke. But this wasn't the time. "Comes see for yourself.", the younger boy directed.

Ron, Yori and Kim walked over to the copy of the holoroom Wade had in his house, now set up in the hangar. On the wall played phone cam footage of Hirotaka's demise. "This was blocked by a federal media gag-order. Someone had a lot of pull in the Japanese government to get this disappeared."

Ron shook. His entire body shook. "I knew it would be a double attack. I knew it. And now my people are dying because I called it wrong. I hoped the Kougon sect would leave us alone. But no. Global Justice isn't enough. A sect of religious zealots and enslaved monsters want to keep me from saving KP too."

Yori placed a hand on his shoulder. "How to you want to respond, Ron-kun?"

Ron couldn't help his eyes glinting blue. "Kill them all."


	21. 12 through 109 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Tara crawled over Josh on the couch. "Did you come over to just seduce me? A perfectly innocent, all-American cheerleader who niavely fell for the artistic type..."

"I'm sorry.", Josh replied. "But is that my blazer and shirt on the floor that some cheerleader tore off me?"

Tara laid her hands and her head on Josh' chest. "So maybe I'm not that innocent.

"I'm going to miss this."

"You can still register for my college.", Josh told her. "I'm going there because of its community works not its prestige. You can still get in."

"But then I'd be going just for you.", Tara told him. "I won't be some girl who's nothing more than an attachment to some man."

Josh lifted her face by her chin. "You don't think that I'd...?"

"It's not about you, silly.", Tara assured. "It's about me. If I'm spending four years of my life just hanging around you, then what does that make me? On the other hand, what skills do I have? It's not like I'm going to be a supermodel after not being discovered in four years of cheer leading. So what's left? One of the girls on a beer ad?"

"You could still cheer lead.", Josh told her. "You were on a championship squad. If you got on another team then you'd stand a shot at making it to a national team."

"And to get on another team, I'd have to go to college, wouldn't I?", Tara accused.

"I just want you to be happy.", Josh supposed. "I've always seen you smile when working a routine in front of a crowd."

"I'll work a routine on you.", Tara threatened while straddling him. "But not in public."

2

A teen dressed like a prostitute brandished a grenade launcher in the middle of the street.

Ron stood in the middle of the holographic room. Wade sat at keyboards and monitors that seemed to hang from the thin air. Kim's corpse stood next to Kim's boyfriend.

The Ultimate Monkey Master called out to thin air, "Target stagnant. Hit her hard."

A ninja in a bleeding edge battlesuit sped onto the scene and snatched the scantily clad monster away from her weapon. The two crunched through the building at the corner and tumbled out into the cross road.

Ron gestured to the side and the room's scenery fled to the intersection. He pulled forward to himself and the street ran past until he was even with the bound, undead girl and armored ninja. Running one hand around the other, the boy turned the scene to gain a better perspective on the fight.

"Incoming priest!", he yelled.

A balding man in a blue monk's robe stabbed his staff into the ground. The ninja barely leaped into the air to avoid a rip in the asphalt that cracked underneath him. He kicked off the shikabane at her contracted priest and the Zadan technique induced earthquake ceased.

Wade called out. "Hack online! Package delivered!"

"Tell Yori's unit to bug out!", Ron replied. "Unwrap the package as soon as the download's complete."

The hologram of the ninja had entered a slugging match with the undead in the meantime. Ron pressed down and the city fell away. A few gestures later he was observing a different fight that was going a lot worse for his side. The conglomeration of satellite data, hacked security cameras through Ikai city and sensors worn by Yamanouchi assets gave Wade's system plenty of information to reconstruct the scenes at a street level. Ron was able to switch from fight to fight, access the situation and advise either retreat or reinforcement or leave well enough alone. Fortuantely for him, the same skills that helped him dash between a maze of lasers or a team of football players kept the entire battlefield in his head.

"Delay on unwrap!", Wade called out. "Asset pinned down on site!"

Ron gritted his teeth. Ninja should be able to plant explosives in a tower and not be found. Unfortunately, the Kougon sect's head quarters contained shikabane hime. Their senses, heightened through death, could turn the most invisible warrior from a discredited rumor to a fleeting shadow. And apparently that was enough. "Can any armor get 'em out?", Ron asked.

Then the trapped ninja's voice came across the holographic display. "Martyrdom is a privilege. May my death aid in the destruction of the enemies of the Ultimate Monkey Master."

"Same for me.", a second voice called out.

Ron nodded. Eventually everyone he sent in on Yori's team, including Yori was going to call in and demand the tower to be exploded. Their mission complete, all of them would gladly die in service to the Ultimate Monkey Master.

"Fine.", Ron declared. "Wade: unwrap the package."

"But our people are still in there.", the boy objected.

"Have you downloaded everything from the Kougon's network?", Ron asked.

Wade considered what his answer would mean for the people he was supposed to be supporting. "No...", he akwardly lied.

Ron frown and his eyes narrowed to slits. He walked over to Wade's console and did what he had done a hundred times before: glance around for a button that would set off an explosion. In less than a second, he pressed the trigger to the delivered explosives.

And then nothing happened. No sound in the (holograph simulated) distance. No cloud of debris skyrocketing. Nothing.

Ron gestured again. The city dropped away from Kim, Wade and him. In the center of Ikai, the Kougon sect's tower stood serenely in the heart of a feng shui pentagram.

"A priest is praying at the side of one of the bombs.", Yori's voice came across the room. "We haven't gotten close to him as he at least five of his protectors have proven less than mortal."

"Zadan technique stopping the easy way.", Ron lamented. "Wade, what are our numbers in the field."

"You mean besides the assets you just tried to murder?", he replied hotly. "I've got reads on fifteen battlesuits still functioning. Every other ninja is flickering in and out of my systems ability to detect except for a few that are decidedly silent. Most nearly every suit is already engaged with a shikabane hime and her contracted priest, if not a couple with several guardian monks for back up. At least five fields have local police aiding the Kougon sect."

Ron called for dots on every fight. The boy gestured from one to the other. At each scene, the ninja were more hard pressed than the last to keep up with the undead and magical might of the Kougon sect forces in their capital city. He drew in a breath and let it out. Then he did what he had hoped he wouldn't have to.

Ron hugged the corpse of his girlfriend from behind. "KP.", he started. "We're going to start taking casualties and lose this. I need to win this fight without those losses. Destroy the Kougon sect for me."

"Be right back, dear.", the shikabane agreed cheerfully.

Ron's arms passed through her. Kim had travelled from Yaumanouchi to Ikai so quickly, no one noticed her becoming a holographic representation of herself.

"You might want to change the simulation to a higher altitude.", Kim warned while her hologram looked into Ron's eyes.

Ron nodded and she blew him a kiss. Lipstick in the color she wore and the shape of her lips floated through the air to land on Ron's cheek, where it stuck physically. Ron gestured downward and the city of Ikai fell away from him again.

The destruction was nearly indiscernable in its thoroughness. The dots representing ninja in the field, including those in the Kougon sect's tower disappeared. Then the pentagram the tower stood in burst into flames that raced into engulf the edifice. In a few moments, the symbol and its estate was reduced to a stylized "KP" identical to the one on the Team Possible website. A path down the streets marked by the collapsed buildings left in its wake snaked around the city. Spots appeared on the trail, where Kim introduced shikabane hime and the contracted monks they were bonded to to a power the could never have imagined.

"I dumped the couple tons of tomes they had with Monkey Fist and told him to see you.", the newly returned KP said to Ron. Her mission outfit was still immaculate.

Then she noticed her lipstick on his face. "Oh, let me get that for you. If it were up to you, you'd go around a mess all day, Ronald Jeremiah Stoppable."

She closed her eyes and opened them to see Ron without her marking.

"I'm gonna go tell Yori that Easter came early this year.", Kim said. The girl calmly walked out of the hangar.

Wade looked down at the holographic representation of the third city in Japan to be completely devastated by American hands. "Do you still think that you should have sent her now?", he asked Ron.

"It was the more merciful of two choices.", Ron told him. "I mean, I could have went myself."

3

The ninja, armed with battlesuits and traditional weaponry and special forces tech, stood listlessly in the main courtyard of Yaumanouchi. Before them knelt a bevy of girls, each with their own priest in a crouch behind them. The girls and priests seemed to be straining with various amounts of effort, but none were able to rise.

Kim sauntered up to the ninjas. "Hey guys. Can I talk to Yori?", she asked.

Yori emerged from the combat force. She removed her cowl and asked, "Is this your doing Possible-kohai?".

"Oh, yeah.", Kim told her. "Hey, can one of you guys lone me a sword? Please and thank you."

Fifteen hilts extended towards her. She chose one at random and turned back to Yori. "By my count you've killed eleven undead monsters, leaving you with a need for ninety-seven more for your one hundred and eight to get into heaven. Conveniently, the Kougon sect fielded one hundred and three shikabane hime. Unfortunately, it took me five to figure out that if you kill the contracted priest the shikabane hime will probably die. So, you only have a margin of error of one."

"Don't worry about them fighting back, I've paralyzed them with graviton generation and my will. And I've sorted them so their particular priest is with them. So just remember two things. One, the shikabane hime before their priest. And two, you only have one mistake."

The redhead then handed Yori the kodachi.

"Alright guys.", Kim addressed the other ninja. "I know you guys would like to get a shower after all the dirty work. Let's leave her too it."

Kim then herded them away.

Yori gaped openly after them. She was still processing what happened when one of the ninja spoke to Kim. "If Yori-senpai is going to ascend to heaven, shouldn't we at least give her our farewells?"

Kim agreed. So the shikabane turned and waved and gave a really big smile. Before turning right around continuing on.

Yori turned to the kodachi in her hand, then the kneeling clergy and their attendant monsters.

"But...but we're prisoners.", one of the men objected.

"The condition is temporary.", Yori responded. "It will be your honor to die in battle. And help at least this shikabane hime abide by your ideals and ascend upon her one hundred eighth."

Yori took careful aim, then skewered an undead stripper and the priest she was psychically linked to. The shikabane melted to a soggy pile while the priest's corpse twitched around the blade in his skull. Twelve down, ninety-six to go. She continued on.

Introspectively, the ninja came to a realization. When she ascended to heaven, she would be seperated from Ron-kun again. The Ultimate Monkey Master would be torn from her again. He would have one less weapon in his arsenal again. The first tear rolled down Yori's cheek.

"Crying over Ron Stoppable?", the blonde shikabane hime with the appearance of a ten year old snapped at Yori childishly. "What kind of a name is Ron Stoppable for someone so Japanese anyway?"

Yori gazed down at the girl and the woman struggling to stand behind her. "This is for killing Hirotaka when you had already met your target and knew that he was Jewish.", Yori said while stabbing the woman in a breast, taking advantage of the facts that a shikabane hime and her contracted priest are linked and that the prepubescent body of the shikabane gave no conception of the pain that could be inflicted on a mammary gland. "This is for your part in causing all this by not accepting the master's word when he came to you with the shikabane of Kimberly Possible.", the ninja continued as she swung the kodachi and took the point of the woman's shoulder. "And this is for wielding a giant hammer.", she scolded while slapping the child. Ron's shikabane hime then placed the tip of the blade in Saki's mouth and ended both her and her priest's existence with a single stab.

Yori continued with her work quietly. Understanding that this would be her final moments before the truth was revealed, she strained her corpse' exemplary hearing with the training of the ninja academy. At least she would be able to hear Ron-kun for a few moments more.

The ninja continued on, if a bit more slowly each step closer to leaving Ron forever a second time. She ignored the pleas of priests for their charges, of proclamations of love by shikabane for their mentors and last requests of the condemned. She grew more sullen in every step that brought her closer to the end. Soon she was sharpening the kodachi on the teeth of the shikabane hime, telling herself it aided in her task instead of delaying the inevitable.

Yori eventually came upon the lanky librarian shikabane and Ron's ex-commanding officer in the Kougon sect. The man who was truly at fault for the decimation of their sect by refusing Ron's request to remain with the corpse of the girl he loved. The ninja allowed the sword to drop and just started punching. The shikabane hime's glasses were crushed at the first swing and her teeth were missing by the last. Then Yori grabbed the priest and shoved his face against his charge. The girl began to heal until the wounds began appearing on the priest. Yori let go and then informed them, "I meant all that for him. But I've might have lost my temper and killed him which would allow you to deprive my blade and my count. You understand." The ninja destroyed those two and moved to the next.

Then her hearing gave her a spark of hope. Yori turned her full attention to the conversation that Ron was having with Fiske. Fiske was assuring Ron, Kim and Wade that what she had heard was true and that it was all detailed in one of the journals that Kim had taken from the Kougon sect's tower. But it would have had to been a massive lie within the organization as well. Yori looked to remaining shikabane hime and their contracted monks. Everyone of them except a particularly scraggly looking priest and his cold faced shikabane roiled with the shock of betrayal, offense, disgust and horror.

Yori grasped on the new information like a drowning man and a straw. She ended shikabane as fast as she could. And her undead form could move with considerable speed. Her training allowed her to glide the sword with exceptional form. She had to hurry. The ninja knew that they would be coming to stop her.

She was right. Ron ran up to her across a field of priest bodies and the slushy ash of destroyed undead. The boy collapsed in front of her breathing heavily. "How many?", he demanded. "How many?"

"Ninety-eight.", Yori replied innocently. "With that, my total rises to one-hundred nine."

The ninja then expressed surprise. "But I'm still...Master Stoppable, what's going on?"

Montgomery Fiske bounded up with a diary in his hand. When he saw the carnage, he started counting. After reaching one-hundred nine he slowed his gait and rose to his fully height next to the kneeling Ron Stoppable.

"Can you tell me what this is about?", Yori asked Fiske.

Fiske licked his lips and then started speaking very cautiously. "Ms. Yori. As far as I can discern, from this tome which simply happened to be the first of Ms. Possible's find that I perused and the evidence that abounds in this courtyard, the Kougon sect has been perpetrating a lie. Even their own members, leave alone the shikabane hime they were contracted to, were not privy to the truth. In fact, that lie was to motivate them.

"The Kougon sect took it upon themselves to destroy shikabane as a threat. Their founder not only decided that policy, but created the ritual to bind shikabane to become shikabane hime. (The first was his daughter and that is why no one after him was able to bind anyone but a young girl). They used that ritual, funneled through that first shikabane hime, to bind contracted priests and captured undead together in their own private war.

"However, they had no path to heaven for shikabane hime. While the number of one hundred and eight is significant, it is not for the ascension of the girl whose corpse served the sect in its war. It is because a shikabane that is bound will attain a new state after that number of monsters are sacrificed in its stead. The shikabane hime will become what is referred to as a 'destroyer shikabane', one with manifold power and a complete immunity to death. Even a blow that rends the brain will bring down such an immortal creature. The ranking members of the sect took it upon themselves to destroy shikabane hime that approached one hundred and eight kills and contain the few that achieved it."

Fiske shuffled his feet, then continued. "Ms. Yori, as far as I can determine, you are never going to any final reward."

Yori nodded slowly. Then she knelt in front of Ron. The ninja took the boy in her arms. "You tried to save me, Ron-kun. And I thank you. But don't worry. I will stand at your side. Apparently, forever."

Kim finally walked up. "Why aren't you playing an angel?", she asked.

Yori looked up and smiled wistfully. "Apparently destroyer shikabane pays better.", she replied.

"American style jokes?", Fiske inquired.

Yori rested her head against Ron's. "We are still bonded as contracted priest and shikabane hime, despite the change in my condition, are we not? It is my honor to take him into myself in any way he wishes."

"As long as he stops being all mopey.", Kim complained. "Give him here. He needs a bath."

"He needs to eat.", Yori countered. "And we both know which he will choose between the two."

"Fine.", Kim said in annoyance. "I'll clean him up and then you fill him up and maybe he'll stop being down in the dumps about destroying a sect of monster fighters or choosing to sacrifice a cadre of his followers or any of these things that are no big."

Fiske carefully stepped away from Kim without stepping any closer to Yori.

Then the Kimmunicator went off. Kim slung Ron's arm over her shoulder and helped him up with one hand, while fishing out the device. "Go Wade.", the undead girl commanded.

"Tell Ron that we have a hit on the site.", Wade countered with a command of his own. "And tell him to brace himself."

"What next?", Ron lamented.

4

In the video recording, Dr. Director sat behind her desk. She was in full dress uniform. The woman appeared to be in her typical, always in command, highly competent mode of operation.

Wade shrugged his shoulders. "Everything about it seems genuine. There are no anomalies in the background, in the speaker, in the sound quality...nothing that would say it's fake. Even the subconscious cues appear as genuine as can be considering the content."

Ron sighed. "Play it again."

Dr. Director returned to motion. "Team Possible, this is Dr. Elishibah 'Betty' Director. I am in sound body and mind and take full responsibility for the command decision I am about to make. Understand that this message is genuine.

"Global Justice, as well as the rest of the world, is aware of the carnage of Ikai. Despite the billions of dollar spent in the repair of the city after the jetliner crashes a few months ago and the lack of space in Japan as a country, the city is being abandoned. Global Justice had the *heh* 'good fortune' to have one of its satellites tasked by your team's Wade Load to observe Ikai during the carnage. After a battery of image enhancement and error checking complementing eye witness accounts, we understand that the destruction is due to one Kimberly Ann Possible...despite no evidence of any additional armament beyond her typical mission garb or motive beyond the love of terrorism.

"Global Justice, the United Nations as a whole and the civilized world as a whole recognizes the infringement of a woman's honor as a war crime and a crime against humanity. But then again, so is genocide on a religious basis and targeting civilians let alone the minor things like operating without a chain of command.

"On the other hand, I recognize a military impossibility when I see it. There is a lot of good work that Global Justice can do. But to perform that work, it must not be rent asunder in the attempt to safeguard my person. While I, nor any of my colleagues, had any forewarning of Agent Du's initiative in the Camille Leon case, there is no way to claim that Global Justice did not accost you.

"In light of the circumstances meeting the conditions of your ultimatum and the inevitability of its enforcement, I have ordered Global Justice personnel not to interfere with its affliction. I am not somehow attaching consent to this act: you will still have rape added to the list of crimes Sidekick Stoppable would be prosecuted for if any force in the world was even remotely capable of apprehending a member of the terrorist organization known as Team Possible. But perhaps my personal surrender can save the lives of those under my command.

"Respond with a time to make available Global Justice' headquarters for the commission of this assault."

Ron gaped at the screen. He gaped at Wade who found the space between the keys on one of his keyboards the most interesting thing in the world right then. He gaped at Fiske whose English stiff upper lip quavered. He gaped at Yori who only placed a coldly undead hand of support on his shoulder. He gaped at KP who obviously couldn't care less. He gaped at Lunch Lady who gave him a thumbs up.

Ron slapped his forehead.

Author's Notes:

The 108 lie is an element of the anime series Shikabane Hime and is revealed in the second to last arc of the second season, around episode 24. One of the main antagonists is an ex-contracted priest who went rogue to attack the sect. He stoops to everything, from using dark Zadan techniques that are fueled by the freshly raised shikabane to increasing the chances that the living would become shikabane upon their deaths to cavorting with a group of shikabane that attack the dead the living. His motivation is that his girl friend died, became shikabane, was bound to him as his shikabane hime and then was bound in a box for destroying 200 shikabane in the service of the Kougon sect instead of ascending to heaven.

I understand some readers know much more about Kim Possible than Shikabane Hime though.


	22. And Justice for Nobody

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Ron sat in the back seat of the Sloth reading the notes that Monte Fiske had prepared for him. "If most dead that come back come in the form of these 'shiryou', then you'd think we'd have seen one of them by now."

Yori stared intently out the front window of the Sloth. "I think a Westerner would equate them to a ghost and dismiss it. It's much harder to dismiss something that has retained its body."

Ron narrowed his eyes. "But if these 'shiryou' are restless spirits...what do you think I called upon against the Lorwardians? I mean, I was always told the Ultimate Monkey Master could call on every ancestor anyone has ever had. Is Mystical Monkey Power based in/"

"I believe that you are simply contriving a reason to not think about the mission ahead.", Yori interrupted.

"This 'mission' is to rape a woman who has helped us save the world for years.", Ron spat. "I would like to hope it's not a wonder why I don't care to think about it."

Kim started speaking. "We're on."

In front of them, a team of Global Justice agents came up in full riot gear. After waiting about another minute, two black helicopters hovered over them. A ninja in one of Wade's battle suits slid down a rope to the team. He presented the Ronnunicator to the agents. The Global Justice team lead snatched the Ronnunicator, glared at its screen and then shoved it back at the ninja. The ninja politely bowed and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Wade's image spoke from the dashboard monitor. "It doesn't look like anyone's following the helicopters on either path. Even the orbital trajectories over the airspace are clear. I think this has all been genuine and isn't a trap."

"Lucky me.", Ron lamented. "I guess I don't have a reason to wait anymore.

"Wade, secure the Sloth once we're out."

The Sloth decloaked in front of the Global Justice Agents, having landed at the rendezvous point a half hour before to check for any attempt at a GJ setup. The doors opened and Kim, Yori and Ron stepped out. The doors snapped shut, the car lifted off silently and then disappeared in an electronic mirage.

The teen and corpses approached the agents. Ron didn't try to look any of the men in the eye. "We don't have to like this.", he started. "We just have to get through this without anyone ripping a chunk out of the planet. So let's all stay calm and..."

Ron rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I can't exactly ask you to forget it ever happened. Let's just get it done and in the past, alright?"

"Even if we can't explain what happened to Ikai, I know you can't rip apart the Earth.", a rookie on the team told him.

"Don't demonstrate!", Ron called out. Kim and Yori slowly put their arms back at their sides.

"Can he be reassigned?", Ron asked the team leader. "The whole point of Dr. Director's plan is so nothing happens to people like him."

The team lead nodded. He jerked his thumb away and when the agent sought to protest, he just pointed. The agent muttered to himself as he stomped away.

"That may be the behavior of your mother, but do not address Master Stoppable so.", Yori called out to him, having heard his words.

Ron glared at Yori. "I apologize, Master Stoppable."

Ron turned again to the team lead. He was already walking, showing the way to the transport tube that would take them to Global Justice headquarters. Once they arrived at the hole in the ground, Ron jumped in. Yori outraced a periguine falcon to fit in the capsule with him. Kim shined brilliantly as she transformed into a glowing gas and flowed into the capsule before it shut.

When the tube opened in Global Justice, Kim reformed in front of another riot gear encased team. Ron stepped out to meet them. He opened his mouth to say something, but shrugged his shoulders instead. He gestured for them to lead on.

Too soon Ron, Kim and Yori stood at the door to Dr. Director's personal quarters. In front of them was a Global Justice doctor and nurse. "It would be a great mercy if we were allowed to...monitor the procedure. There are a vast amount of complications that those without medical backgrounds may be unaware of. For examp/"

"The Ultimate Monkey Master is uncomfortable enough with his choice.", Yori scolded. "It would be a great mercy if I allowed you to leave with your skins after seeking to upset him more."

Her corpse's nails grew to claws, her teeth to fangs and even her hair seemed to sharpen. The team of agents leveled assault weapons at her.

Ron told the doctor. "Believe me, if anything goes wrong...well, worst than expected, I'll be the first to call you."

Ron placed a hand on the shikabane's shoulder. The monster looked to him. It snarled at the doctor. Then she nodded to him in her usual form.

Yori assessed the automatic rifles and combat shotguns pointed at her. "What exactly were you intending to do with those trinkets after I fluttered them about the room like confetti?"

The team lead spoke to Ron for the first time. "We will be standing guard the entire time."

Ron shook his head and looked at his feet. "Dude. If that mattered in the slightest, I don't think Dr. Director would have ordered this."

With that, the three teens entered Dr. Director's personal quarters.

2

Global Justice' commanding officer's quarters struck Ron as a contradiction. They were luxurious in that military sort of way, meaning there was a night stand sized table for playing chess with two tiny chairs and a bookshelf for classic military works on one side of the bed and the bookshelf for regulation manuals and logs on the other. The queen sized bed was made to pass inspection and on the wall above it were only degrees (Ph. D. of Forensics, actually) and medals.

Dr. Director herself stood in front of a a spacious queen size bed. She was dressed only in GJ issue sweat pants, a sports bra and eye patch. If Ron was not intimately familiar with Kim and Yori, he may have been surprised at such a combat toned female form. Then one of her uniforms sailed through the room.

"KP.", Ron chastised.

Dr. Director, Ron and Yori turned to the woman's closet. Kim continued tossing uniforms on the floor. "She knew she was going to have a boy over. Why wouldn't she wear something a bit more flashy.

"Oh, that is her flashy.", Kim said as she threw the last uniform on the ground.

"KP!", Ron called out again. "I'm sorry. I get that you don't want this associated with any of the clothes you'd wear everyday."

"But not sorry enough to keep from violating a mentor.", Director told him.

Ron ran up to her and started yelling. "You caused this! You have no idea what's been going on and yet you still want to try and judge and attack us! I thought we had earned a bit more trust than Drakken, but NOOOOOOO!"

"And don't give me that 'going through the motions' because 'we can take it' because 'we're special'. It wasn't right for you to just heap trouble on us because you thought we could survive. Yori didn't deserve to be abandoned to a ninja cult because she was strong. Simply doing something shouldn't be your way of telling me. KP shouldn't have had to reanimate just because she could. Sending Global Justice after us on the basis of 'we can take it' is wrong.'

Dr. Director shifted her hips and raised an eyebrow. "As wrong as rape?"

Ron ground his teeth. "I don't want to do this."

"Are you turning yourself in a little to my right, because I don't see you surrendering to authorities.", she objected.

"I need to not be stopped.", Ron stated. "My threats must carry weight. You have no idea what's going on."

"You're right about that.", Dr. Director told him. "All of our projections of your psyche profile show this type of break only after Kim Possible's death."

Ron looked down. "KP, prove that you're dead."

Kim's blood infused heart smacked wetly into Dr. Director's face. "Check for yourself, it's not beating.", Kim instructed. The shikabane didn't turn around from her violent perusal of Director's closet.

Dr. Director touched her face and the red liquid that coated her fingers even smelled like blood. Ron picked up the dead heart and brought it back to Kim. The girl pulled up her mission shirt, ripped a gash in her torso, separated her ribs and allowed Ron to push the organ back into place. The flesh healed over the wound nearly instantly. Director sat down on the bed heavily. Ron softly sat beside her.

Kim continued with the woman's clothes.

"What in the...", Director started.

"The regretful dead walk the earth.", Ron told her. "We were trying to save the world from them once we found out. After you backed Drakken, who was one by the way, KP...well you know. I've been working to save her. I mean, the world...and her."

"But mostly her.", the woman assessed.

Kim still busied herself with the closet.

"I have to.", Ron told her. "I've got a lead on how I can make up for everything. For letting KP die. For destroying the city of Ikai. For sacrificing...well, let's just say that Yori has friends. And for/"

"And for raping me.", Director said. "Ronald, there are things you can't make up for. You were the one that chose to step outside of human authority instead of showing us proof of life after death."

Ron scoffed. "I guess the secrets out now, huh?"

"I'm a woman in authority that will be seen as letting herself be raped. I don't think I'll have much credibility when I start ranting about vampires.", the woman objected.

"Shikabane, actually.", Ron told her.

"Thank you, you know.", he continued while turning to her. "Your plan to save Global Justice I mean. Trust me, there's entirely too much death and I did not want to cause any more by fighting my way in here."

Her strong black eye stared a hole in him. "Don't you think I won't trust my rapist?"

Ron sighed and hunched.

Yori interjected. "Master Stoppable, the longer you take, the longer Global Justice personnel will have to abide by it. They will only have so much patience.

"Also, this is not an intimate moment. Your typical following of our lead is an inappropriate technique. While she has stated that she will not resist you, you will still have to force her. You are taking her by force to show that you can."

Ron looked at Dr. Director. The woman simply shrugged in agreement.

"I know it has to sound stupid.", Ron told her. "But I don't want to hurt you. Is there anything I should know?"

"You mean like where to stick it in?", Director asked. "I thought Americans had sexual education in their school system."

Ron's eyes narrowed. "You know wha/"

"I'm a virgin.", Director hastily changed her tone. Ron's face softened and she continued. "I started my career at a younger age than Will. Global Justice has been my only life. Romantic relations across the chain of command, like yours and Kim's, are not allowed. And this is the first time I've been raped in the line of duty.

"We studied your body for the Ron Factor research. If you don't want to hurt me with your size, you'll be gentle...at least until my body accommodates yours."

Yori gathered Ron into her arms. "It is time to begin, Ron-kun.", she told him.

The last remaining shikabane hime on the planet looked over him and spoke to Dr. Director. "Strip and lie on your back. You need to look into his eyes during and see what you have brought upon him."

3

The three teens stepped out of Dr. Director's quarters. The Global Justice agents glared at them. The medic Ron had spoken to earlier stared at him questioningly. Ron rubbed the back of his neck. He looked to Kim who wore Director's dress uniform jacket casually. He then turned to Yori.

Yori spoke to the doctor. "Master Stoppable did not use the contraception you supplied the Dr. with by my advice. His seed has been used to make a statement by marking her. Also, Master Stoppable's size made simultaneous stimulation of her cervix, Grafenberg spot and clitoris unavoidable and she reacted predictably. Potentially due to her service record, her hymen did not appear intact: there was no bleeding. I did not witness any bruising of _her_ body."

Yori then guided Ron down the corridor. "Possible-kohai, if you would...?"

Kim nodded. The firearms the surrounding agents carried fell through their hands as dust.

4

Kim piloted the Sloth back to Yaumanouchi humming to herself. Yori sat in silence with her legs crossed and her hands folded in the front passenger seat. Ron flopped across the back seat with his hand over his red and dried eyes.

Wade came on the dash board monitor. Before he could even speak, an over enthusiastic Montgomery Fiske pushed him out of the way. "Ronald, I've found it!"

Ron immediately sat up. "Really?"

"It turns out I would have found it anyway.", Fiske began. "But with your young cracker's successful 'virtual raid' against the Kougon sect, the clues became computer sortable! Correlating them with Yaumanouchi's, the location was revealed. On one hand, the original site of the Tempus Simia's body's containment temple has been excavated. But it's stored in the Tricity Museum."

"Great, the hometown.", Ron commented. "And what do you mean body?"

"The statue lost its head around 1250 BP, er, 700 Anno Domini. But that is a fully surmountable setback: the body should clap when brought into proximity of the head."

"You, Wade, Lunch Lady, I don't care who.", Ron started. "Have a team get it. Whatever you have to send, whoever needs to be bribed just do it. Have them bring it to Yaumanouchi where we'll pick you up. Ultimate Monkey Master out."

As the screen went dark, Ron started to confide in the two shikabene with him. "This is it! Once I have that little monkey, I'll be able to set all this right. I'll be able to make up for everything."

Yori smiled softly but encouragingly.

Kim agreed. "And if we had only known Monte was going to find it so quickly, you wouldn't have had to gone through with your threat to rape Dr. Director. I mean, there's no need to making sure no attacks Yaumanouchi while he looks for the Tempus Simia now that he's found it. Oh, well. No big."

5

Dr. Director laid propped up in a hospital bed, dressed in a hospital gown in Global Justice' HQ's infirmary. Her legs were in stirrups while a rape kit was utilized. A tray held the reports she went over on a daily basis and the cup of water she used to wash down an emergency contraceptive and a few antibiotics.

A speaker voiced out. "Dr. Director, the Secretary-General is on the line. Do you want me to reschedule or/"

"Just pipe it down here.", she called out.

The woman turned her attention to a terminal amongst the medical monitoring equipment. "Yes, sir.", she snapped at the image.

The chair of the U.N. nodded at her greeting. "Let me begin with giving you my utmost sympathy for your attack."

"Thank you, sir.", Dr. Director replied. "The doctors tell me that I'll be cleared for active duty in a few minutes.

"I believe I've found some actionable intelligence upon contact with the enemy. It may be a long shot but/"

"Please, let me continue.", the Secretary-General said. "This is difficult enough as it is.

"I need to inform you that Global Justice is being disbanded."

"What?", Betty choked out.

The man steeled his face. "News of your assault has swayed opinion in the council. Global Justice was formed because of concerns from smaller nations that the U.N. forces were dominated by the superpowers. But these nations are primarily the Muslim and Asian world. You understand how Iran feels about a female commanding officer, let alone one that let herself be raped. There are many others like them."

"It was a calculated move to retain the maximum amount of resources to apprehend Team Possible!", she objected.

The man nodded. "That is for the review committee that I'm certain will be formed to decide. In the meantime the U.S., E.U. and Russian Federation are using the incident to return Global Justice' duties to U.N. forces and specific Security Council decrees, which they primarily control."

"Ron Stoppable will not be stopped by military intervention.", Dr. Director informed. "It is an international espionage operation. The very task Global Justice was formed to pursue."

"Be that as it may. No one trusts you as a leader any more, Betty.", her sole direct superior informed her. "The fair compromise of your appointment is going to be disavowed by everybody who has a vote.

"Your only remaining mission is recalling all agents from the field and repatriating them to their countries of origin. Global Justice has been destroyed."


	23. 110 of 108

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Kim piloted the Sloth. Ron sat behind her, staring at Montgomery Fiske with hope. Yori sat behind Monkey Fist, ready to strike at the first sign of betrayal. The man simply held onto a statue of a monkey's body with twin shields with a delicate desperation.

"It's clapping!", he called out. "It's clapping. We're getting close to its head."

Yori raised an eyebrow. "Has it not been banging its shields for the past hundred kilometres, Fiske-san?"

"It will sound more quickly the closer we are to its head.", Fiske told her. "Once we have the head, we can attach it in the Temple of the Tempus Simia in Central Africa to activate its ability to traverse time."

"Incoming contact.", Kim called out. "Engaging in evasive manuevers."

Ron scrunched his brow. "Just because a plane is near doesn't mean it's necessarily our enemy."

The boy looked out the window and saw the Team Go jet barrelling towards him. His body was yanked as the Sloth dove under it. The jet came around for another pass.

"Set it down!", Ron called out. "KP, put the Sloth on the ground."

The Sloth started on a steep dive.

"Ronald.", Fiske questioned. "That plane is aerodynamic. It is utilizing the lift generated by the atmosphere rushing over its wings to fly. The Sloth is space capable. Why are we not climbing to evade them and resuming the search for the Tempus Simia later?"

"Because I've had to do something horrible because you wrote me Cliff Notes of the Koungon sect's tomes which got me the clappy thing a few hours too late.", Ron replied. "From here on out, there is no path but forward.

"Besides, that's the Team Go jet. The only surviving members are the twins, Wego. Their curse is to copy themselves, probably due to being ignored as the youngest and now they're never alone or some such. If we're on the ground, they'll engage us in a hand to hand rumble. They'll be confident in their victory because they can outnumber us a thousand to four."

Fiske nodded approvingly. "But they don't realize that they'll be walking into the claws of a master of Tai Sheng Pek Kwar, a destroyer shikabane, a curse that can do anything and the Ultimate Monkey Master. Bringing the fight to the ground turns an unsavory dogfight into a trap."

The Sloth hit the ground hard. The Team Go jet flew over them, low. It didn't even extend its landing gear and just slid to a stop.

"Fiske, give me the monkey.", Ron commanded.

Yori's eyes widened when Fiske complied unhesitantly.

Ron continued. "When you get the signal, fly the Sloth away as fast as you can. Sorry to go all Sodom, Gomorrah and Lot on you but don't even look back or you will never see anything again."

"That is disturbingly Biblical.", the man agreed.

"Didn't you know that the savior would be from the nation of Israel?", Yori commented.

Fiske rolled his eyes. "And what exactly is the signal?"

"If KP did our high school science project right freshman year, the skies will turn dark all spooky like.", Ron told him. "Like a big, 'maybe you shouldn't be here' in black."

A see of red washed over the Australian outback. Soon enough, more Wegos than could be easily counted strode up to them. Ron, Kim and Yori kept the Sloth between them in a protective triangle.

"So you thought you could destroy all of our family simply because we're dead.", one stated.

"Why did you think that I, of all people, would ignore you leaving me alone in the world?", another asked.

"Now, I'm one of a kind.", a chorus of adolescent voices called out.

"My revenge shall not be swift!", yet another red spandex clad boy warned. "The world gave us access to every single satellite after Ikai. That's how we were able to track your flying car. It demanded vengance for what you did to Dr. Director. Considering who you have with you, we will have twice the revenge a hundred thousand times. The only difference is that you will get to watch them suffer."

A relatively close Wego pointed at Ron and asked, "Sorry to break up the ominous, mob threat but did anybody else notice the clapping stone monkey? That's weird, right?"

"KP, Yori!", Ron ordered. "Double Tornado Thermonuclear Attack!"

Kim and Yori glanced at Ron, noted serious face, then nodded to each other. They both tore through the crowd copied undead at a speed that left a dry canal of savanna torn across the landscape.

Both Kim and Yori stopped at the edges of the crowd of Go twins. The shikabane they faced simply continued its red glow, multipliing around the individual girls. Both girls grabbed one of the male shikabane and swung the corpse around herself. The resulting whirlwind at first just sucked up more of the copies, Then the very dirt they were standing on. Eventually, two cyclones were produced: one spinning clockwise and the other counter clockwise. The two disasters 'slowly' limped toward each other, tearing up enemy and earth alike as they came.

The two masses of air brushed against each other. They acted as weather fronts and storm clouds started to form from the desert dry air.

Ron, whose manifest aura glew with the magesty of the might of every ancestor everyone has ever had, pointed up at the darkening sky. Fiske simply had the Sloth lift off and flew as far away as he could.

The two cyclones came closer to each other and started biting into one another. The resulting lightning incinerated some of the last shikabane of Team Go. But the lighting and force five winds were mere hints at the destructive power about to be brought to bear.

Ron was raised into the air on flows of Mystical Monkey Power along with the body of the Tempus Simia, its clapping slowing as Ron was brought to a heaven from which he could survive the impending hell. Yori had ended the existances of 109 corrupt corpses and every mention of such an act in Kougon lore told of heaven or immortality. Kim could simply do anything. So when the enemies the two girls spun around at kilosonic speeds collided, they actually managed to endure the atomic explosion.

The remaining shikabane of Team Go enjoyed no such protection. Apparently, annihilation on a molecular level due to a wind of plasma incinerating all in its path indeed destroys the brain of a shikabane. The same could be said for the land that was once in the crater left by Kim and Yori's attack.

Ron's blue, monkey mantled body floated down to the two girls but hung in mid air so he did not come into contact with the white hot ground. The two shikabane stood beneath him nude, having been cleansed of anything that may have been destroyed by the million degree heat. "Um, could you...?", Ron inferred.

Yori cast a smoky gaze up to him and hid nothing in particular behing her hands. "Oh, Master Stoppable. You have caught me out of uniform in the middle of a mission. I apologize most humbly and truly fear your...punishment."

"Sooner would be better than later, KP.", Ron added.

A wash of the superheated dirt came over the two girls. When it fell away, the two were in their typical mission uniforms and freshly perfumed.

Ron was turned in a circle. He held the body of the Tempus Simia in a particular direction and declared, "That way. Let's go."

2

The three came upon the tomb of the head of the Tempus Simia.

Ron floated to the ground. The body of the statue clapped furiously. Ron handed it to Yori. Then the blue crystal ring he always wore turned into a nodachi and the Ultimate Monkey Master sliced away a door of meter thick solid granite. The boy walked in and came out with the head of the statue and hope that the world could be saved.

Hope to be dashed.

"Alright, Ron.", Kim spoke amicably. "You have the Tempus Simia. Time to come home."

"What?", Ron questioned.

Kim balled up her fists and planted them on her hips. "Look, you always do this. You get some little thing and then you get all big headed and the only way to handle it is to ride it out until you learn better. Remember when you got that haircut and girls were all over you? Remember when you got that job at Bueno Nacho? Remember when you got the strength enhancing ring? Remember when you got labeled as 'the Ron Factor'? Remember when you got that spy tuxedo? Remember when you got roped into becoming the Fearless Ferret? Remember when you got first place in the talent fair? Remember when you got the Naco royalty check for ninety nine million dollars? This whole shikabane hime, Ultimate Monkey Master, Tempus Simia thing is just another one of those times.

"And now it's over. It's time to come home Ronald. Sure, you destroyed a sect of monks dedicated to protecting the living and raped the head of the world's police and tried to sacrifice a bunch of people who worship you and commanded a priceless artifact to be stolen and kidnapped your one of your best friends and killed another's mom among the other murders you conspired in. But no big. What matters is that you have to spend the summer with your girlfriend, like teenagers are supposed to do the summer before they go to college."

Yori shook her head. "It is Master Stoppable's will to save the world utilizing the Tempus Simia. Surely, you cannot against that."

"I am so against that it is not even funny.", Kim told her. "Now why don't you step aside in case I have to drag Ron back to Middleton."

Kim gestured and a lit stick of dynamite was conjured from nothing. It flew to Yori and instead of exploding turned into a flock of doves.

Kim and Ron first turned to each other and then to Yori. "How did you do that?", both asked cautiously.

Yori smiled sheepishly. "I apologize, Master Stoppable. I have told you many lies for your benefit. It is unfortunate that this situation has forced me to expose myself.

"I never was bonded as a shikabane hime. To do so, I would have had to give up my regret: that I had not served the Ultimate Monkey Master. If I did so, I may not be inclined to help Ron-kun. I could not allow that to happen. I may have even accepted being bonded to some other monk by the Kougon sect.

"So I kept my regret. And my curse: to do absolutely anything my precious Ron-kun needed. And I lied to benefit him, just like I told you the first time you met my corpse, Possible-baka.

"I had to keep the appearance of being a shikabane hime and that Ron-kun was my contracted monk. My curse allowed me to fake the bond between such a monk and his shikabane. My curse allowed me to choose to only regenerate when Ron-kun touched me: that is why he never felt the pull of rune and held the impression that he could withstand feeding rune to a second shikabane, that of his dead girl friend. All I had to do was hold back enough to keep up the illusion of death only enhancing my body.

"Taking out individual shikabane and falsely advancing toward a goal of one hundred and eight shikabane allowed me to be with Ron-kun. The circumstances of my death forced upon a weakness that could be easily misused to seduce my way into his heart. Soon enough, I was sharing his sanctuary and his bed along with his bath.

"My real problem came with the attack of the Kougon sect. While I foresaw Ron-kun's unleashing you against them thereby lining up a sufficient number of shikabane to 'redeem' me, I could not determine some way to continue without revealing myself. But then a fortuitous event: the Kougon sect's lie. Upon overhearing that I 'would' turn into a destroyer shikabane after Ron-kun had turned away from sect's teachings, I found another acceptable 'cover'. By simply not holding back my curse to the same degree, I was simply 'more' than I once was: a destroyer shikabane.

"My lies served Ron-kun well. I am now here to offer force that can stand between Kimberly-baka and my dearest Ron-kun."

Yori took a stand between Kim and Ron. "Do whatever you wish, my dearest master...my precious Ron-kun. I will hold Possible-baka away from you."

Ron bid farewell with an introspective, "I will see you soon, KP."

The boy's aura exploded into the flaming form of a monkey. Ron was hurled into the sky toward the Temple of the Tempus Simia in Central Africa. An undead, single-minded corpse with a curse to do anything chased after him. The only thing set on saving him was an undead, single-minded corpse with a curse to do anything...just for him.

The trail of carnage that trailed the Ultimate Monkey Master as the two infinitely powerful if narrowly minded monsters fought over him was absolutely and perfectly indescribable. There are no names for the cosmic powers, supernatural forces and arcane tactics used by Yori and Kim. Imagination will never be enough to conceive of such destruction. Mere poetry ineffectual at communicating such disaster.

Ron risked a single glance behind him and witnessed in horror. The Ultimate Monkey Master reached out to all his domain with only a single idea, to distance himself from the hell that pursued him. Every primate on the planet with access to WMD armed ICBMs launched. The wake of conflagration across the Indian Ocean turned radioactive, terminally poisoned and putrid with pestilence in a matter of hours. From the use of these weapons, half the planet would be dead within the next twenty-three years, forty-four days, eleven hours, twenty-three minutes and eighteen seconds.

The boy crashed through the wall of the Temple of the Tempus Simia. Ron landed on the altar with a hearty thud and his pants around his ankles. Ron stood and slapped the stone monkey's head onto its body. A hellish, fiery red vortex swirled into existence. He knew exactly which 'when' to go back to. He hopped desperately to get through the vortex as the earth began to shake when Yori and Kim closed in.

The Ultimate Monkey Master made his escape before the corpse who loved him and the corpse he loved brought their fight to him.


	24. The Beginning

Disclaimer:Kim Possible and all related characters are owned by Disney.

Shikabane Hime originally owned by Gagan Comics, anime by Feel and Gainax.

No profit (and definite loss of time) accrued.

1

Ron pulled up his pants, replaced his blue crystal ring and picked up the Tempus Simia. He looked around, carefully taking in the environment of peace and tranquility. In this moment of introspection, nothing came through time to disrupt his thoughts. He accepted that he arrived Yaumanouchi without any rogue monster screaming through time.

The boy decided he arrived at the right time since he arrived at the right place. Ron crept and stalked carefully through the campus with a deftness only born of an ascended master of mystical monkey power. Soon he stood outside Yori's room.

Ron slid the door shut behind him and found himself awestruck. She was beautiful. Her calm, regular breathing. The flushness of her face as blood delivered oxygen and nutrients and warmth to her golden skin. The unconscious flutter of her dreaming eyes, resting her body and mind. The living girl's life moved Ron in a way her corpse' sensuality never did.

Yori opened her eyes on her own. The ninja, even asleep, could sense the familiar and powerful and dear presence that accompanied her in sleep. As she sat up the girl questioned, "Stoppable-san...?"

Then her eyes widened. "No. Master Stoppable."

Yori immediately knelt before Ron. "Have you outstripped even Master Sensei's expectations?"

Ron rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, no...I think I'll ascend sometime tomorrow. I just traveled through time to talk with you."

Yori's eyes widened. "I had been under the impression that when you ascended with Possible-sama's aid, you would have no further use for me. Master Sensei had informed me of such. I had even been/"

"That's what I came back to talk to you about.", Ron told her. Then he continued on. He told her of her death and reanimation. He told her of the murders her corpse would commit around the world. He told her of the deaths of her classmates and mentor. He told her of corpse' dependency on him and the sins she would commit to keep her hold on him.

Yori smiled hopefully. "So you're saying that I'll be able to serve you in every capacity forever? That I will be able to rescue you from the shadows of the great Kim Possible. And all I have to do to show you my faith is offer my life? I will do so immediately."

Ron gaped. "What? No!"

"Oh, of course.", Yori agreed. "Not until tomorrow's bath after your ascension, like you instructed."

The girl flung herself around Ron, hugging him warmly. "I had feared you did not care about me. You never seemed to care before your ascension, with Kim Possible taking up all of your attentions. But taking the time to come back and ensure my companionship...it is...it is...such a holy miracle. A prophecy of god waiting to be fulfilled.

"Thank you, Ron-kun. I have always loved you."

Ron stood up, slipping from Yori's arms. A blood red portal opened in her room. Ron was gone without a trace.

Yori started her morning early. She had the unanticipated chore of chopping wood for the bath's fire ahead of her, so she would need an early start.

2

Once upon a time there was a monkey. She tried the stay in the trees, like all the other monkeys.

The only problem was that the other monkeys did not want her there. So they abused her and screamed at her and kept all the shade and fruits for themselves.

The monkey decided to leave the trees. She headed to the trunk of the trees, so that she could travel to the ground and live there.

Ron caught the monkey before it hit the ground. "You don't want to leave the trees.", he told her. "It's garbage down here."

Ron lifted the monkey back to the branches and warned her. When monkeys leave the trees they would learn that mere sins of the jungle like greed for food and violence for survival and lust for procreation can be replaced. New, much more dangerous sins awaited them. Sins like jealousy, obsession, haughtiness, vanity lurked on the ground. Ready to drive any one of her children mad.

The small act of coming to the ground from her perfect garden of the trees would ensure at least one demonstration of this. A perfectly honorable, loving, intelligent girl would be abandoned by her parents, tortured by her mentor and brainwashed by a cult of her family. And when this girl finally found love, it would be bent into a parasitical darkness. After it consumed her, everyone would suffer. Her victimization would only produce more victimization.

"So please.", Ron asked. "Stay in the trees."

Ron set the Tempus Simia on the ground. He walked away from it.

Once he was clear, the burning blue aura and the true shape of the Lotus Blade took hold. Ron vanished into the skies. Across the universe, tales would spread of a 'big blue'.

The monkey up in the tree wondered at her visit. The others that chastised her came back. With her being even more different because something they did not understand visited her. So they threw her from the tree so she died upon the ground.

Her corpse finally had the opportunity to be in the new world she wanted but never did. So of course, the monkey came back because of her regret at missing that opportunity. Inevitably, she cursed the land...with a creature that could perform all those new sins her visitor described.

3

Montgomery Fiske stood holding the Tempus Simia, refound after the devastation of the planet had unearthed it. The man ignored the grave yard that surrounded him, Yori's howling corpse chained to Ron Stoppable's grave and the psychadelic sky painted of Kim Possible's memories of Ron. He simply waited for the untamed monster he knew was coming.

Kim blurred onto the scene. Her hair was a natural blonde. She wore a hockey jersey and cargo khakis from a time before humanity hunkered in fear of her. Her no longer green eyes cast their brown gaze onto the man before her. A highly evolved naked mole rat hung dead, chained to her pocket.

"I'm late?", she demanded. "But you have it. You have the Tempus Simia. Hand it over so I can bring Ron home with me."

Fiske showed her a stiff upper lip and never let her see him sweat. "Well, that's all fine and well with me. But would it be alright with my student?

"My student would have to abide such a demand as well, due to your power. I mean, to stand against you the pupil would have to be undead. And they would have to have some additional advantage, like being imbued with Mystical Monkey Power, to show any real resistance. But the proper training would have to start when they were a toddler. And there's no shikabane that grew from a birth state."

And then he smiled a sinister smile that he had not had an opportunity to use in years. "Oh, wait.", Monkey Fist advised. "There is."

A twenty-four year old Hana Stoppable appeared out of seemingly no where. The young woman's corpse was enveloped in the glow of a monkey. Her fist was enveloped in Kim Possible's jaw.

The elder shikabane flew away as the skies crackled in wrath.

**The End**


End file.
